


[ Code 19 ]

by raindropwaltz



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Jurassic World Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dinosaurs, F/M, Gen, HOW IS THERE A TAG FOR THAT LMFAO man i love this site, Raptors, So many dinosaurs, Too Many Teeth, anyways here's rey and ben solo running around with dinosaurs, because i damn sure don't trust trevorrow to write it, dr. ben solo is about to have a bad day, people will be eaten, raptor-wrangling, rey's taking us all to the gun show, we got dinosaurs out here yall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-05-31 05:19:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15112616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raindropwaltz/pseuds/raindropwaltz
Summary: Dr. Ben Solo, Paleogeneticist, expected this visit to the park to be routine. He expected this to go smoothly.He did not expect to be introduced to Rey Kenobi, nor to hear the title 'Chief Raptor Handler' in her introduction.Neither one of them expected their day to go this way.(They probably should have. It's all in the line of work, here.)alternately:"...What's a Code 19?"





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> literally i have no reason to be writing this.  
> like, there are people to blame here for egging me on--we all know i have no self-control when it comes to AUs.
> 
> so here's rey&ben getting dirty and getting into dinosaur shenanigans.

 

 

_Summer, 1995_

 

 

“Honey come on!” They were in a hurry, the flight was going to be leaving any moment, “Your uncle runs on a tight schedule, you know that! Come on, sweetheart, or you’ll miss your flight!”

A sullen, dark-eyed boy of twelve gave his mother a baleful look from under a curtain of shaggy, curling black hair that barely concealed his ears, or his mood. He wore a pair of blue jeans and a grey t-shirt patterned with green long-necked dinosaurs, a bright red backpack on his back and a pair of old sneakers on his feet. His mother was dressed formally; a pantsuit in dark blue, her brown hair braided and coiled at the back of her head.

“He doesn’t even spend time with me,” his mother’s hands smoothing down his hair only aggravated the boy further, “He doesn’t care that I’m even there! He just cares about work!” _Just like you_ , said his eyes, and his mother sighed, kissing his forehead firmly.

“Listen, little fighter,” her nickname, which still only served to make his frown deepen, “It’s just for the summer. It’s like camp!”

“At camp you have _fun_.” He scowled at her, and his mother sighed.

“He works with _dinosaurs_ , you love dinosaurs!” Another huff.

“He doesn’t even let me see them, or do anything fun. You just want me to go so you can get rid of me and do your stupid campaign stuff.” He leveled a dark gaze at the older woman, and she immediately stiffened.

 

“Baby...That’s not...you know I don’t just want to get rid of you--” The boy shrugged her hand off of his shoulder, but she grabbed him again, looking him dead in the face, and finding his eyes full of tears.

“Dad’s not even here. He said he would be here. He doesn’t even _care_ \--”

“That’s not true!” His mother pulled him into a tight embrace, fingers weaving into his soft hair. “That’s not true, baby. We love you. Your dad loves you, _I_ love you. And when you come back, you can tell me and dad all about what you learned with your uncle. Okay?”

_“This is the final boarding call for flight AA 2837 to San Jose, Costa Rica, departing from Gate 3 in five minutes. I repeat, this is the final boarding call for flight AA 2873 to San Jose, Costa Rica, departing from Gate 3 in five minutes. Thank you.”_

 

Mother faced son again, leaning back to look him in the face hurriedly.

“Come on. I promise you, honey, I promise. I’ll take time off when you get back. Dad will too. Right now you gotta hurry, okay?” There was a long moment of silence before the boy took a breath and nodded, swallowing and sniffing some.

“Okay.” They were right outside the gate, he would be fine, but he hesitated another moment longer before tightly pulling his mother into a hug, muttering against her shoulder, “I love you, mom.” Her eyes widened a moment before she hugged back, nodding and kissing his hair firmly before releasing him again to let him run for the boarding gate.

She called after him as she stood up, watching his bright red backpack jostle on his back.

“I love you, Ben! Tell Uncle Luke I say hi!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_Summer, 2018_

 

 

 

“Dr. Solo, your pilot wants to depart in five!”

 

His assistant was tapping his watch, gesturing to the runway where the private helicopter was waiting for him.  
He was on schedule, five minutes wouldn’t be a problem. He stowed his iPad in his briefcase and slung the leather strap over his shoulder, adjusting his glasses and heading for the doors outside into the summer heat.

He climbed into the back of the small aircraft, tucking his briefcase into his lap and checking his watch, as if it were somehow going to tell him a different time than his tablet had just moments ago. The pilot glanced over his shoulder, getting the engine going and nodding at his passenger, handing him a headset.

“Ready, professor?” The man was probably a good twenty years his senior, grinning in a way that said he didn’t particularly care about the reply.

“Doctor. And yes--I’ve got a schedule to keep.”

  


 

The island came into view before long, a green, rough gem in a sea of blue. They could see the structures from their altitude already, could see…

“Isla Nublar!” The pilot crowed over their headsets, nodding out the window, but his passenger was already focused on their destination.

Below them the island sprawled out, a stretch of craggy stone and green foliage. There were forests, and he knew that below the treeline were animals he’d been waiting years to see. He hadn’t been to this island in years, and the last time he’d come he’d been kept far away from the only things he’d wanted to see. Things that, this time, he was there to evaluate, hopefully up-close and personally.  


 

They landed and Dr. Solo stepped out into the sun, a hand up to his forehead to shield his eyes from the bright light. The helicopter’s propeller continued to spin, generated wind whipping his grey blazer around his chest and tousling his dark, curling hair. There was a young woman striding out to meet him, dressed in business attire and holding an iPad, her blonde hair tucked into a tight knot towards the side of her head. She flashed a pert smile, offering him a handshake and raising her voice over the noise.

“Dr. Solo! I’m Kaydel Connix, Park Director here! Follow me, you’re right on time!” He shook her hand, nodding down at the shorter woman and falling into step beside her as they headed indoors, the blonde woman leading him down from the private landing pad and into one of the research buildings outside of the actual park this island housed.

“So, Miss Connix, tell me you have good news for me.” The blonde gave him a pleased smile, pressing her hand to a datapad and punching in an access code to get them through the automatic door and into an enormous, multi-level research facility, and a welcome shelter from the heat.

“I promise you, Dr. Solo, you and your boss are going to _love_ the news I have for you.” She led him down a walkway and towards the opposite side of the building, to where a click on her iPad made an enormous panel shift from wall to window, overlooking a lush valley of plantlife and a theme park beyond. But more than that...more than that, in the green field that lay ahead of them, they could just see the lumbering forms of huge, tanking, horned beasts making their way over the grass as smaller, thinner, speedier creatures zipped past them in swift-moving herds. They were ancient and new, something Ben Solo had spent a lifetime studying. Kaydel Connix turned to Dr. Solo again with a little grin, watching him drink in the view.

“Welcome to Jurassic World, Dr. Solo.”


	2. don't turn your back on the cage

“As you can see, Dr. Solo, our research facilities have put every bit of funding to good use,”

Miss Connix was leading him through what she’d referred to as the ‘R2 West’ building. They passed rooms with wide glass viewing windows displaying monitors showing various parts of the facility, parts of the surrounding fields and paddocks for the animals. Ben caught brief glimpses of movement on a few of them, but Kaydel Connix’s brisk pace kept him from getting anything more.

“This all looks very impressive,” Dr. Solo spoke up after a moment, “But can I ask why we’re starting my tour here?” He raised an eyebrow behind his glasses, “I don’t mean to sound rude, but this isn’t the _central_ research facility--”

“We’ve had you land here at the R-Complex at the request of Dr. Hux,” Miss Connix replied with a little smile, gesturing for him to follow her down a small flight of stairs, “He was adamant you be brought here right off. I was told that Mr. Snoke asked him directly to have you brought here to get a look at Project Alpha before we moved on.” Ben blinked, brow rising slightly at this.

“‘Project Alpha’?” he repeated, surprised. “I could have sworn that was scrapped five years ago…”

“We were...pending termination,” Connix admitted as they took the stairs down, “However the project was greenlit a second attempt after our most recent batch of eggs proved all healthy and perfectly developed. Once we found our new project lead, the venture continued without hitch. I think you and Mr. Snoke both will be _very_ pleased with our results.”

  


Ben was going over all of this in his head as they walked.

‘Project Alpha’ had been an early-assigned undertaking for the park, far prior to Jurassic World’s opening. It had been directly assigned to a team of researchers by Snoke himself; a study in pack mentality and the ability to bring any of these animals to heel--but one species in particular was the focus of this study: the velo--

“Ahh, Dr. Solo.”

A crisply accented voice shook him out of his thoughts, and Ben found himself face-to-face with a man clad even more immaculately than he himself was.

 

Dr. Armitage Hux was a chief geneticist that had recently been assigned by Snoke to head R&D here at Jurassic World, a way of keeping the First Order’s company presence very center-stage and making sure that their grasp on all developments moving forward stayed as firm as possible.

Hux was a pale, slim man with high cheekbones and an almost pinched expression constantly on his face. His ginger hair was at all times impeccably coiffed back from his face, cropped short and clean over completely clear white skin set with a pair of almost startlingly pale eyes. He wore all black; blazer and trousers over a turtleneck, even here in the South American heat of Isla Nublar.  
Everything about the man, Ben thought, was cold and rigid. This was not a man accustomed to outdoor activity, hard physical labor.

Presently, Hux was offering him a smirk, hands clasped behind his back rather than offering a handshake in welcome.

“Dr. Hux.” Ben nodded, lowering the hand he’d raised in both anticipation and just out of habit “Been a while.” He glanced around them some, nodding, “Everything here looks...efficient.” He trailed off with another brief nod. Hux’s smile looked somewhat pinched, as if this were some ordeal to get through.

“Efficiency is the key to meeting our goals, of course,” He sniffed, and turned on his heel, expecting Ben and Miss Connix to follow. They did.

 

“So...tell me about Project Alpha,” Ben spoke up, meeting Hux’s quick pace with ease, and adjusting his grey blazer slightly at his waist. Hux didn’t so much as glance at him, but Ben saw the man’s lips quirk slightly.

“I intend to do better than that, Dr. Solo.” He sounded downright smug, to the point of almost sounding amused.

“Better than...explaining.” Ben deadpanned, raising an eyebrow, but Hux’s expression was unchanged.

“Oh yes. I intend to _show_ you.” Ben’s brow shot up.

“ _Show_ me?” He almost missed a step. “The project is that far along?” Hux’s nose was in the air as he led Connix and Solo towards a set of large doors.

“Absolutely. Did you expect to be brought here just to see...guest relations? Animal satisfaction?” He let out a cold sort of laugh--or what Ben assumed was a laugh--at this.

“No, but this is...You’re telling me these animals are ready for me to actually see the results of this project?”

“That is exactly what I am telling you, Dr. Solo.” He punched in an access code of his own, letting another touch-pad scan his handprint at this set of doors. They slid open, allowing the trio to step back out into the heat, this time on a walkway overlooking an outdoor paddock below them.

“Tell me, how much do you know about Project Alpha..?”

  
  


 

“All right, hup!” there was the sound of dirt shifting under heavy, quick footfalls and a loud, piercing whistle, and on a platform over the center of the large outdoor paddock, a young woman stood with her right fist raised in a ‘hold’ gesture, her left hand clicking an obedience training aid. Below her on the ground, four animals had come to a skidding halt, snapping their toothy jaws at the air and making noises up at her that might have been accurately described as ‘grumbling’. Their tails whipped about behind them, large inner-toes tapping the ground excitedly as they watched the girl above them, snapping at each other and jostling about until another whistle had them at full attention.

These were velociraptors: fast, vicious, incredibly intelligent, and incredibly dangerous. There were four of them in this paddock, clawed toes tapping the ground as they watched the human girl addressing them with interest.

“Hey! Eyes up here, all of you!” The girl’s voice was loud, accented with the Queen’s English, and commanding. She snapped a few times to make sure she had the animals’ attention, and her face split into a toothy grin. “That’s my girls! All right, ready? Move it girls, with me!” The trainer strode along the walkway a few yards, watching the raptors follow her below, their focus still on her.

“Good, good! Amazing! You guys are perfect today, look at you!” She was grinning broadly, clicking the little tool in her hand and nodding proudly to herself at the dinosaurs on the ground.

She reached down into a bucket beside her feet, and withdrew a large piece of raw and bloody meat. The raptors snapped and chattered at her animatedly, and she whistled again.

“Okay Echo, this one’s yours!” She slung the meat down to the one called ‘Echo’, who snapped it out of the air eagerly.

“Delta! This is you!” Another chunk thrown, and ‘Delta’ chomped this one up just as quickly as the first.

“Charlie, here’s yours!” ‘Charlie’ let out a rumbling sound and shook her piece before devouring it like her sisters. The fourth of the raptors, however, screeched up at her and shook her head, impatient. The girl laughed, hefting a larger chunk of meat this time.

“Blue, girl, you know I didn’t forget you--eat up!” She tossed this chunk and this time, the raptor ‘Blue’ leapt up to snap it out of the air, quickly finishing it off.  
Their human handler watched them with proud fondness on her face, and then raised her fist again, letting out another whistle.

“Okay! Eyes up here, eyes on me!” The four raptors were much quicker to snap to attention, this time, and the girl made them hold a little longer.

“Hold...hold…” Her hand swung out into a ‘go ahead’ gesture. “Go!” And the four raptors took off sprinting through the dirt into the foliage of their paddock.

  


“Never gets old,” Came a voice to the girl’s right, and she grinned at her partner across the bridge over the paddock, “Watching you working with them.”

Poe Dameron was Second Raptor Handler; he was in his early thirties, tanned and handsome, with curling black hair and a constant, rakish bit of stubble on his jaw. He grinned at his partner as he strode out to meet her.

“Heard we got one of the Big Guys here today,” He snorted, “Rose in R&D told me they’re sending one of the FOs out here to check us out.”

“A bigger FO than Hux?”

“Y’know I’m not sure that’s possible, but hey I guess we’ll find out, huh?”

Just like everyone else that worked with them, they answered to the First Order Corporation, the large red and black logo emblazoned on their workwear with the ‘FO’ initials that they’d taken to ‘fondly’ using to mean ‘fuck off’.

 

It wasn’t that they hated their coworkers. Hell, they didn’t really even hate their bosses--but the higher-ups had no idea what it was like to actually do what they did day-to-day. None of them had actually spent time with any of these animals, and their constant butting-in was _aggravating_ , to say the least.  


Both raptor handlers were making their way down the steps to be ground level again, watching the maintenance crew doing some cleanup around the paddock and in the small holding pen attached as they chatted.

“Hopefully this’ll be the last visit we get for a while. Especially if it’s a visitor,” Poe was saying before they heard a loud shouting and a clanging of metal, followed by a pig squealing and more noise after.

 

Both handlers immediately bolted to action.

“Pig loose!” Came the shouting from the maintenance crew, and sure enough, one of the feeder pigs had sprinted out into the paddock.

“Shit,” Poe hissed, running with his partner for the holding pen. It was way ahead of feeding time; they kept schedule for a reason--but worse than that…  
There was a skidding sound and a loud set of screeching noises followed by a strangled scream.

One of the maintenance workers had rushed to dive for the pig, and was now in the paddock with the raptors, who had all four come rushing up at the sound of food.

 

“Don’t move!” The worker was on his back, facing the four raptors standing a few yards away and eyeing him very, very curiously. His chest was heaving and he was sweating bullets, starting to shake on the ground in fear.

“Wh-what do I d-do--what do I do--” He was squeaking, and Poe was shaking his head helplessly outside the bars of the pen.

“Just--we’re gonna get you out of there, okay, just don’t mo--” He was cut off now by his partner punching the gate release next to him, slinging her body into the paddock before the gate opened completely.

“Shut it! _Now_!” She shouted, and swiftly moved herself between the raptors, and the terrified man intruding on their space. “Guns down-- _lower the weapons_!” She was shouting to the security detail who were now aiming at the raptors with clear shots all around.

“Rey what the fuck are you doing?!” Poe had slammed the gate shut again, but was pressed against the bars watching her with the others.

 

Rey had a hand out in front of herself, her eyes on the four dinosaurs and never wavering.

“Listen to me,” She kept her voice down, addressing the man behind her in the dirt, “I’m gonna get you out of here, okay?” She didn’t wait for a response, slowly taking a step back, her hand still out in front of herself towards the raptors.

“Yeah, just stay there, girls. Good. You know me.” The one she’d called Blue shifted further forward than her sisters, sniffing the air and letting out a rumbling screech, flashing a mouth full of teeth that neither Rey nor the man behind her wanted to see any closer at the moment.

“Hey, hey--Blue, don’t you even think about it!” She rebuked the raptor, sounding much more stern than she felt at the moment. Echo lunged forward slightly, snapping at the air, and Rey rounded on her, “Echo, you _get_ back in line!” Another screech from Delta, at this, but none of them advanced any further.

 

Rey took another sliding step backwards, and then another. The raptors didn’t follow, their claws opening and closing, tails swaying with interest, toes tapping the dirt as they chirped and chattered at each other, watching Rey and the strange man with her.

Another step back. The man was scooting back with her, trying to get to his feet.

Another step. Charlie let out a low rumble, and the four-raptor pack went still.

 

“Poe!” Rey called hurriedly, and the second Blue took even one foot off the ground, Rey gestured to the man behind her.

“Go, go--run, NOW!” Rey hissed at the man, and in a burst of dirt and adrenaline, he shoved himself up and into the pen, but when the dust settled Rey was still in the pen with the raptors.

 

Poe was at the bars, hand hovering over the gate latch and trembling as he stared at his partner and friend in helpless horror.

“Rey get _outta_ there!” But she shook her head slowly, still facing the raptors with her hand extended.

“I run from them now, that breaks _everything_ I’ve built with them!” She kept her voice down, watching the four dinosaurs slowly, hesitantly advance on her. They moved carefully, as if testing her—but Blue made it the closest, snout nearly close enough to touch her hand.

“Blue…you know me, girl. You know. It’s me.” Her voice was calm, quiet, her hand as steady as she could keep it, her eyes firm on the raptor’s as she spoke.

Blue cocked her head some and let out a chirping sound, eyeing Rey with a startling amount of intelligence in her slitted eyes. She didn’t come any closer.

 

Behind them in the holding pen, the maintenance worker had gotten up to stand at the bars with Poe, all of them watching as Rey slowly started to back up again, one careful step at a time, focus on the raptors with every movement.

“Poe, hit the gate latch. Double.” Her voice was still calm and quiet, but the moment she heard Poe’s hand hit the release and heard the gate snap up and then start to shut again, she somersaulted backwards under the gate as the it shut behind her. All four raptors were screeching and roaring at her back, headbutting the bars before giving up, eyeing Rey, and then rushing off into the rest of the paddock again.

  
  


“Incredible, Miss Kenobi—absolutely incredible,” there was soft clapping as Dr. Hux approached the holding pen, with Kaydel Connix flanking him and another unfamiliar face beside her, “As always.”

His eyes traveled over the raptor handler and then lingered on her own maybe a moment too long before he gestured to the guest behind him.

“Dr. Solo, I’d like to introduce you to Rey Kenobi, our Chief Raptor Handler here at the facility.”

 

Rey Kenobi stood, tanned and freckled, at about five-foot-seven. Her deep brown hair was currently tied at the back of her head in three knots, but loose tendrils were hanging free around her face and the back of her neck, strands sticking to her skin with sweat. She was in a rust-colored tank top and fitted jeans that may have been green under a thick leather utility belt and a pair of leather calf-height work boots—but she was covered in dirt now, so he could hardly tell.

She had a cord around her neck with a rock, or some kind of clear, rough crystal on the end of it, and wore a cuff on one wrist, a few beaded bracelets on the other. Her arms were filled out with muscle but her tan skin was torn by pale scars in more than one place, some of them thick and clearly re-sealed with grafted skin.  
Their placement and the jagged edges of them suggested more than a few of them had come from claws.

She had a tattoo on the inside of her left forearm of the planets of the solar system in black and white, and another on her right arm near her shoulder of a leafy branch that had been ripped through in two places by another scar set.

She gave them a friendly enough smile as they approached, glancing around Dr. Hux at the newcomer, who was hunched over a bit as he moved around the ginger man to offer her a hesitant handshake.

“Ah--hi--hi, it’s, uh, it’s good to meet you, Miss Kenobi--I’m ah, I’m Dr. Ben Solo, paleogeneticist.” He pushed his glasses up his nose a bit, managing a lopsided smile.  
Rey blinked, taking the handshake. His hands were enormous compared to hers; he had to be at _least_ half a foot taller than her, and about twice as broad as she was. He looked slim in his office clothing, and very cold and clean compared to her. He must have been the ‘Big FO’ Poe had heard about.  
He didn’t seem like the others.

 

Rey nodded at him, shaking his large hand firmly and studying his face some as she did.

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Solo. Just ‘Rey’ is fine.” He looked...softer than the other First Order visitors they’d had. A soft face--prominent nose, soft mouth, moles that dotted his face. A pair of ears that had probably gotten him teased, she was assuming, judging by the way he kept his hair just long enough to attempt to downplay them.

He didn’t seem terribly comfortable or familiar with socializing, either, and held the handshake a second or two too long before hastily tugging his hand back and trying to busy himself with adjusting his blazer, running a hand through his hair and coughing slightly in embarrassment.

“Right--yeah, of course--it’s good to meet you then, er, Rey.” he nodded, clearing his throat, and Rey just looked amused, motioning for Poe to join her.

“I’m the Boss here,” she snorted, “But this guy’s a close second. My partner, Poe Dameron.” Poe leaned forward to shake Dr. Solo’s hand as well, nodding.

“Nice to meet you. You look like you’re a long way from home, Doctor.” Ben nodded a bit awkwardly.

“A bit, yeah. But I’m eager to see the park and get updated on your...your progress here.” His eyes had already gone back to Rey, however, and seconds later he’d turned to face her completely once again, taking a step forward. “That was--in the paddock just now--that was...wow. Do you do that...a lot?”  
Rey raised an eyebrow at him.

“What, prevent a workplace casualty…?” She shook her head slightly, giving him a look that made him look away in embarrassment.

“No--no, I mean face the--get in the paddock like that, with...with the raptors.” Rey shook her head.

“No. Nobody gets in there with them.” She nodded at the paddock, gesturing with one arm, “That’s suicide. Doesn’t matter how well they listen, those are apex predators, more dangerous than big cats or zoo animals.” Dr. Solo nodded at this, but Hux stepped in, flicking an almost suspicious glance at Ben that was so quick Rey missed it, but Ben did not.

 

“Miss Kenobi is the best we’ve ever had with these animals. They’ve responded to her in a way we’ve never seen any of the creatures on this island respond to any other workers.” he nodded at Rey appreciatively, “She has a way with them. We made her lead of the project because of it.” Rey shook her head, offering a slight shrug.

“They imprinted on me when they hatched. I’ve been looking after them since they were born--they know me,” she nodded at the paddock again as a loud shrill screech came ringing from out of the foliage on the inside of the bars, “and I know all of them.” Poe stepped up to stand next to Rey, however, a hand resting on his hip.

“It’s respect. You treat them with it, they’ll give it back. But they’re still wild animals--we can’t know what they’re thinking.” Rey nodded.

“And we can’t underestimate them.”

 

 

Ben looked back at the paddock through the bars of the holding pen, and saw that one of the raptors had returned to watch them, making a low clicking sound and swiveling its’ head slightly. The one with the odd scale pattern down her sides. The one Rey had called ‘Blue’.

_We can’t underestimate them._

He absolutely agreed with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [come screech at me on twitter](https://twitter.com/binarysvnrise)


	3. an appetizer, if you will

The R-Complex was behind them now as Dr. Solo boarded another helicopter, this time with only Miss Connix and the pilot. Dr. Hux had given about as much of a goodbye as Ben expected; he’d been guaranteed that they would be speaking again later that day, and really that was enough for him.  
Miss Connix was near shouting over the noise even with the headsets on and her seat next to Ben in the back of the passenger compartment.

“We’re en route to the main research building right now, Dr. Solo--you’ll be able to see our primary labs as well as our visitor ‘hub’ of the park!” She had leaned over slightly to ensure he heard her, but in response he’d just leaned back slightly, an awkward expression on his face. He nodded stiffly.

“Right, yes--I’m looking forward to it…” Kaydel Connix looked only slightly offended that he’d retreated like that from her, and settled back in her seat. Ben cleared his throat a bit at the look on her face and looked out the window next to him, eager to avoid looking at her now.  
The rest of the short flight passed in silence.  
  


The park was full to bursting. Ben was reminded of how much he hated theme parks as they waded through the sea of people in the main guest hub, stocked with moving and interactive holograms, play areas for smaller children, and tour groups forming around park workers. It was loud, it was cramped, there were too many people for his taste, and most of them were children.

The rides were one thing. This, milling around and having to navigate through crowds, having to dodge running children and listen to the complaining and screaming…  
When they entered the staff area, he was relieved.

 

“This is our main research wing; all projects are conceptualized and begun here in this building. All of our eggs are initially incubated here before being sent to various branches of the park to be reared and contained.” Miss Connix was explaining as they passed lab rooms, some of which were being viewed by tour groups.

Ben nodded, watching a group of children, faces excitedly pressed to the viewing glass window as a clutch of eggs was shivering and cracking, ready to hatch. He couldn’t hide the small smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he watched, hanging back a moment to watch one of the eggs finally give an intense shudder and then spit out a spindly tail, followed by a thick little foot. The children at the window shrieked, and Ben smiled before realizing Miss Connix was standing a yard or two down the hallway waiting for him to follow.

His expression neutralized and he quickly returned to following her, clearing his throat again quietly.

“Yes--I, er, before the park opened, this was--”  


“This was where some of your main research was performed, wasn’t it?” She nodded briskly, her tone suggesting she was aware of this fact. “Before we expanded, of course. Things are a bit different here now, and some of the older labs are currently in a below-ground level section of this facility.” Ben nodded slowly, digesting this.

 

It had been a while since he’d been here, longer still since he’d actually worked on these grounds. Kaydel Connix continued her small tour.

“We currently have fourteen species of herbivore here and six carnivores--but that number is about to grow.”

“To grow?” He raised an eyebrow at this as she led him to a small room with a number of computer monitors displaying video feed as well as statistical data. She stopped beside a large wall-mount display, offering Ben a small quirk of a smile.

“This is just a...pit stop, Dr. Solo.” She tapped the wall-mount screen and the display shifted to show an overview of a dinosaur that was entirely unfamiliar to him.

“What is that?”

“The raptors were just the first taste.” She smiled, and Ben wanted to be excited, but there was a mounting sense of uneasiness in his stomach suddenly. “ _This_ is why you’re here.”

  
  


‘That’ turned out to be in a paddock detached from the main wing by about five miles. It was a quick ride in one of the park Jeeps out to the containment area, Ben scanning the fields around them as they drove. There was nothing in sight of the car, nothing but green grass and trees and mountains beyond, and he wondered just how close any of the animals actually got to the park proper in the first place. He didn’t wager many.

 

The containment unit was huge; thick concrete walls and steel beams, and some of the higher panels of wall looked newer than the lower ones. Ben looked everything over, pushing his glasses up his nose some as he stepped out of the car and shut the door behind him.

“This is...a lot.” his brow knit slightly. “Are there more than one of these things in there?” Miss Connix shook her head.

“No, only one. She’s...bigger than we anticipated.” She took a little breath, exhaling again quickly. “We had to add onto the enclosure--security advised building higher walls.” Ben’s brow shot up.

“How big...is she?”

“Full grown she’s projected to reach at _least_ 40 feet long. We haven’t been able to get an exact measurement.” she led the two of them up a set of stairs into the containment facility to view the inside of the paddock. Ben was trying to wrap his head around this.

“The Erebosaurus Rex,” she informed him, and Ben’s brow went up.

“The Erebosaurus?” He repeated, testing the name. It was a little cumbersome, but then wasn’t that just part and parcel of naming dinosaurs? Still… “Why ‘Erebosaurus’?”

 

The paddock was just like any other. Trees and brush, walled all around. The viewing corridor was cool and well-lit, and Ben peered into the paddock, squinting slightly to see if he could see the dinosaur contained beyond the thick glass.

“Is she healthy?”

“It’s...much bigger, as I said. The growth rate exceeded what we were projecting as well, and she’s...much more intelligent than expected.” Ben’s brow went up at this and he adjusted his glasses, looking the pen over. The walls were high, but there was a sort of dome he could see now that was covering the whole paddock.

“What is that?” He walked to the glass, tapping an upwards-pointing finger at the dome-roof. Miss Connix smiled at this, clasping her hands behind her back and walking up to stand next to him.

“That is something we are still developing currently--once finished, it’s going to be what will set her attraction apart from everything else.” Kaydel Connix looked out into the paddock as she continued, “When she’s unveiled, she’s going to be a showstopper.”  


As if on cue, there was movement in the trees. Dr. Solo went on alert, focusing on the movement as best he could, trying to see better. Whatever it was...whatever the Erebosaur was...she was massive.

“You said she’s still growing?” Miss Connix nodded.

“Yes.” Ben took a deep breath at this and turned from Kaydel Connix to the glass again.

“What exactly... _is_ she?” Miss Connix took a deep breath now herself and exhaled, straightening her shoulders some.

“The base gene was from an Allosaurus. Everything else is classified.” Ben’s brow knit slightly. 40 feet at the minimum...but her base gene was an Allosaur? Something didn't add up.

“Classified?”

“We were given the eggs to incubate and monitor by Research and Development. Her complete genetic makeup was not provided.”

“Eggs? There’s more than one?”

“Unfortunately no. There were two eggs, one of which was crushed before it could hatch. She is currently the only one of her kind.” Ben’s eyes stayed on the dinosaur moving closer through the brush until--

“Is she--is she blind?” He reared back from the glass in surprise, eyes awestruck and glued to the dinosaur that had emerged in front of him. Miss Connix shook her head.

“No. She is very photosensitive, however; she’s got a secondary eyelid to prevent too much UV light from reaching her retinas.” Ben’s brow had nearly disappeared into his hair.

“So she’s nearly blind, then.”

“Nearly. Her sight is very poor in the light, but it doesn’t seem to impede her.” Another dubious look from Ben, and Kaydel Connix flashed him a smile. “She’s a revolution in genetics. Her scheduled feeding is in an hour—I think you’ll be excited to see it.”

  
  
  


“You doin’ okay, buddy?”

Poe had seated himself next to the shaken maintenance worker at a picnic table outside of the housing he and Rey shared. The man nodded stiffly, taking a long drink from the water bottle they’d given him.

“Yeah—yeah, yeah I’m…” he swallowed hard and exhaled harder. “Are you kidding me I almost got **eaten** — _no the fuck I’m not okay—“_ Poe just chuckled.

“Naahhh, we had it, right Rey?”

Rey was cleaning and tuning up an old tracker motorcycle with a rust-colored body detailed in burnt orange. It had clearly seen better days, but it ran like it was brand new thanks to her work. She looked up when she heard her name, snorting.

“I think you mean _I_ had it--and the only reason _I_ had it handled is because they were probably surprised to see me in the pen with them like that.” The maintenance worker looked ill about this, expression souring as he looked at her.

“I don’t know how you two can work like this…” he grumbled, and Rey snorted again, shaking her head fondly and setting back to work. Poe clapped the guy on the shoulder, offering a sympathetic smile.

“You gotta be new. What’s your name, anyways?”

“Finn. I’m new to this complex, but not the park; I used to work in the main lab branch.” Poe nodded, offering a handshake.

“Nice to officially meet you, Finn.” Finn took the shake but returned it a bit weakly, shaking his head.

“I don’t know how you two do it. I mean…” he turned to look at Rey, “You just rushed right in there, knowing what those things are…” Rey glanced over at him, grinning and wiping her forehead on her arm, smearing a track of grease and sweat across her face.

“I’ve been with those raptors since they were born. I understand they’re dangerous. They know me--they know I respect them and they know I’m looking out for them--but they’re still carnivores, animals that we still don’t know everything about. They’re dangerous. You just…” she gestured with a little shrug, “You just...approach with caution. Use your instincts. Common sense.” Finn snorted at this, but it did not sound that amused.

“So that’s why you threw yourself in the pen with four of them staring you down like a hunk of meat…” Rey laughed, shrugging and smiling to herself, going back to work.

“I guess if I had more of all three of those things I wouldn’t be working with raptors.” Finn did laugh at this, smiling sincerely.

“It was still amazing. I’ve never seen anybody do anything like that before.” Poe snickered.

“Don’t get used to it. We try not to breed heroes around here--even if it sounds pretty damn cool.” Finn grinned at him now.

“They do talk a lot about you guys in the main labs.” Poe’s grin widened.

“Are we the cool kids on campus?” Finn nodded, taking another drink of water and laughing.

“Somethin’ like that, yeah. I mean you’re _raptor handlers_ \--that just _sounds_ cool.” He shuddered a little, pausing a moment. “And terrifying. But still cool.” Rey only laughed, shaking her head and sticking to her work on her motorcycle. ‘The cool kids’ indeed.

 

Truth be told, she wasn’t necessarily _shocked_ that things had gone as well as they had, but these were _velociraptors_. If there was anything she’d learned in her time with them, it was that they were intelligent and unpredictable, and that made them very, very dangerous.  
Even to someone like her, who had been handling them their entire lives.

That being said, she still loved all four of them as much as a person could. She’d been there when they hatched. She’d been one of the first people to see the four of them, to touch them, to feed them. She cared about them, about what happened to them. If any of them were to...to _eat_ someone…

They weren’t pets. They weren’t gentle creatures--she’d known them since they were hatchlings, had seen the best and the worst of them, and she had the scars to prove it. Today was not her first time in the paddock with them. It was not her first time up-close with them. She knew it would not be her last, either, but she didn’t go out of her way to put herself in that kind of danger with the raptors. She didn’t act recklessly with them, a show of her respect for their space.

 

“So what were those guys doing at the paddock earlier?” Finn’s voice made her focus on the conversation behind her again.

“No idea. Being overseers, I guess.” Poe shrugged.

“Hux I’m not surprised about. But the new guy…” Rey shrugged, thinking about this. “The new guy I’m not so sure about.” Poe looked over at her, brow rising.

“What d’you mean?”

“I don’t know. He’s not like Hux.” she leaned into tightening a nut and her brow knit some as she put her weight into it, voice straining slightly, “He’s...I don’t know...different.” Poe snorted.

“‘Different’? He’s just another FO like Hux and everybody else higher up on the food chain here.” He laughed, “He’s just way more awkward than Hux’s weird ass.” Rey did snort at this.

“And here I thought that was impossible…” Finn spoke up here.

“That guy Hux’s a weird dude. I saw him in the main branch all the time when I worked there. Just seems sort of creepy.” he made a face, “Definitely looks like the kind of guy that would work on creating dinosaurs.” Poe laughed.

“Well, we lucked out because he’s got a big creepy crush on Rey--” He started laughing when Rey cut him off, making an exasperated noise.

“You’re so full of shit--”

“--So that’s how we get our funding. I’m telling you Rey we could probably get new housing if you flashed some ti—“

“Poe if you finish that sentence I’m gonna light your ass up.” She threw a greasy rag at him and shot him a warning look, which Poe heartily ignored.

“One day you’re gonna get with it and we’ll get _employee bonuses_. You could afford to just buy a new motorcycle!” Rey looked indignant.

“There’s nothing wrong with this one!”

  


Poe’s reply was cut off by a burst of static from the walkie-talkies they’d set on one of the lawn chairs nearby.

“ _Rey? Hey, you there?”_ Rose. Rey got up, wiped her hands on her already dirty pants and went for the walkie.

“Hey Rose, what’s up?”

_“Kaydel’s asking for you to get out to the E4 building asap!”_ Rey blinked, raising an eyebrow.

“The E4 building? She say why?”

_“Nope, just asked for you to get out there! Sorry, I don’t know anything else!”_

Rey took a breath and nodded, shrugging, and took a second to tie her hair back again, grabbing her rag from near Poe to wipe her arms and face off before brushing off her clothes.

“Right, ok, so I guess I’m out.” She gave Finn a nod, smiling. “It was good to meet you officially, Finn. See you around?” Finn nodded, giving her a little wave.

“Hopefully outside the raptor cage from now on.” Rey laughed, and Poe hefted himself to his feet, dusting himself off a bit.

“I’m gonna head to the main branch while you’re out, then. Gotta check up on when they want the weekly report and maybe chat with Rose a little. Her birthday’s coming up, y’know…” He trailed off warningly, and Rey smacked herself in the forehead.

“Ah, shit. I forgot--hey figure out what she might want, I’m not doing gift cards again we looked like assholes last Christmas…” Poe nodded, snorting and waving her off before turning to Finn.

“You wanna tag along? Whenever shifts are over we’re all probably gonna go out for drinks, you should come with us! You got more work today?” Finn looked surprised, but shook his head.

“Nah they--they let me off the rest of the day--you sure?” Poe nodded, giving him an easy grin.

“The more the merrier. Come meet Rose, we can all probably just chill in the main branch until later when she gets off.”

 

Rey had already swung into one of the park jeeps, and pulled up past them slowly, waving out the passenger doorway at them.

“See you guys later then. Hopefully they won’t keep me too long!” And as Poe and Finn waved back, Rey took off away from the housing complex and onto one of the utility roads, the grey and blue company jeep kicking up dust in its wake.


	4. Code 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  check out this AMAZING moodboard that was made by an equally amazing person, Erulisse!!  
> thank you so much for this omg ; w; 
> 
> find her here:  
> [tumblr](http://happilyeveraftereveryday.tumblr.com/) | [ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erulisse17/works)

The E4 Building was a good drive away from their housing complex. About five miles east of the main complex and the park proper, off the ‘beaten trail’ and behind three layers of electrical fencing.

 

Rey was given clearance at the main gate and drove into the compound, shutting the jeep off once she pulled up to the main E4 paddock, her boots crunching on the gravel as she swung out of the vehicle. Why the hell did they call her all the way out here? She hadn’t even been to this paddock, this wasn’t her area.

The E Compound was for new assets during their development. She didn’t have clearance for this place, and she’d never really cared all that much; but then she also just hadn’t heard much coming in or out of this compound to begin with. If she was honest she tended to forget it was even at the park at all.

As she was looking around at the outside of the building, another car pulled up, but didn’t park. Dr. Hux stepped out, and the car pulled away again, leaving him in the parking area with her.

“Ah, Miss Kenobi, there you are.” Rey raised an eyebrow at him.

“You know why I got called out here, Doctor?” she asked, meeting him halfway as he was strolling towards her. He nodded.

“I do. It was put forward that we could perhaps use your expertise in handling our newest asset.”

“‘Asset’? You mean a new dinosaur?”

“I do.” Rey’s brow knit slightly.

“Why would you need my help with this, Dr. Hux?” He took a step closer and Rey tried very hard to block out Poe Dameron’s smug expression from earlier.

“Your work with the velociraptors has been nothing short of revolutionary, Miss Kenobi. This new asset will need to be relocated soon, and once she is we will need a new team of handlers for her, handlers that will need proper training and could learn from your work.” He seemed to drift closer still and Rey had to glance back at the paddock. “And I have told you, just ‘Armitage’ will be fine.” He sounded almost soft, but something in his voice wasn’t...sincere? Maybe? She couldn’t put her finger on it.

Luckily she was spared any extensive thought or reply by Kaydel Connix’s brisk voice as she rounded the paddock wall with Dr. Solo in tow.

He caught sight of Rey, and she saw his eyes widen slightly behind his glasses before he realized she was looking at him, and looked away so quickly he had to stop his glasses from falling off of his face.

“Rey! Dr. Hux--good, now that we’re all here, we can go inside and have our demonstration!” Rey’s brow went up as the blonde woman and the tall scientist behind her approached.

“Demonstration?” Miss Connix nodded.

“Yes--it’s why you’re both here,” she glanced from Rey to Dr. Solo and back, “to see the new park asset.”

  


They were led into the paddock viewing area. It was larger than the one they had for the raptors; Rey looked around at the thick glass layers and the security system complete with multiple feed monitors around the paddock, and immediately felt on edge about this. Just what the hell were they keeping in here?

“So what is this thing?” she asked, slowly walking towards the glass, reaching out to press her hand against it. It felt less like glass and more like stone, it was so thick. She drew her fingers down a little ways and noticed a number of cracks in one of the outer layers, however. She left her hand over them, nodding towards the window. “And what happened here?”

“We had...an accident,” Kaydel cleared her throat a bit as Dr. Solo moved to glance at what Rey was gesturing to, crouching down some and leaning in a little closer to the glass. “It’s been remedied and the glass has been since reinforced, you’ll notice.” Ben stood again, looking bothered.

“So more layers were added--was she trying to break through?” Kaydel took a breath, watching the paddock outside with a very practiced smile on her face.

“Not quite. We don’t think she was, she just seemed hungry.” Rey’s brow knit.

“So what is she?”

“We’re calling her the Erebosaurus Rex. Her base gene is Allosaurus.”

“A new dinosaur--you just _made_ a new dinosaur?” She sounded floored, and she felt even more aghast than she sounded. It shouldn’t surprise her, not with everything she’d seen and done at the park herself, but..

She shook her head, trying to make sense of all of it.

“So you cooked up a new dinosaur. She--her _base_ gene is an Allosaurus? So what the hell else did you all put into this thing?” She cocked her head, waiting for further explanation. She didn’t get one.

 

“The rest is classified. We think she may be near full grown now; she’s projected to be at least 40 feet in length.” Rey’s brow shot up.

“How is that possible--the Allosaur isn’t as big as a T Rex.” She caught sight of Dr. Solo very subtly nodding near her as she said it. Kaydel shook her head.

“I’m afraid her makeup is classified. We were given the eggs and the basic information here, and that’s all.” Rey noted that Dr. Hux, through all of this, was very conspicuously silent, his eyes on the paddock the entire time.

“Eggs?” Rey raised an eyebrow, and Miss Connix nodded.

“Mm. One of them was destroyed, unfortunately.”

“So she’s the only one here,” Rey frowned, “Has she left this paddock at all?”

“Because of her makeup we’re unsure of how she might react to being outside.”

“So she’s the only one here, and she’s never seen another dinosaur. Has anyone actually been in there with her?”

“Good lord no,” the answer was immediate and Rey’s brow went back up.

“So...she’s alone, she has no idea that there’s anything outside of this paddock, and she hasn’t had any outside interaction?”

“We feed her live animals, now. She seems to enjoy it more.” Rey looked uncertain and bothered by this statement.

“So you’re telling me the only other live creatures she knows of are her _food_?”

Silence fell.  
  


Kaydel turned back to the window, however, and glanced around a moment before turning to the control booth near the far end of the viewing chamber.

“We’re demo-ing the dome today. Let’s go Night Mode and have a pig dropped, please!”

Rey glanced at Dr. Solo, who was standing next to her now and watching the glass with them. He looked concerned, she noticed, and wondered if he was thinking some of the same things she was. This was all...not good, honestly. She had no idea what this thing was, but it wasn’t socialized and it was isolated to a problematic degree. But knowing that this thing only knew living creatures to be food...Rey didn’t like that at all.

 

Outside, there was a loud rumbling sound and the strange dome covering the paddock began to go dark--hexagonal panels went from translucent to black until the entire paddock looked dark, and only soft blacklight inside of the viewing area remained in the building. Rey’s eyes widened slightly as she looked around, looking at how everyone’s clothes had lit up (except for hers, which probably didn’t have a speck of white or pale on them anymore) before turning back to the paddock.

“What is this?” She spoke up in the near-blinding dark.

“Her eyesight is...very limited in light. She’s incredibly photosensitive; I was explaining to Dr. Solo earlier she’s developed secondary eyelids to protect her eyes.”

“So she’s….day-blind.” Rey’s brow went up at this, though no one could see it.

“Not quite _blind_ , but very limited in what she can see.”

“So she can see in the dark?” Dr. Solo’s voice, this time, awed.

“Yes! She’s adjusting to periods of activity during the dark right now, we plan to keep her paddock on artificial time once we premiere her.” Miss Connix sounded very pleased and very rehearsed, like this was part of the speech she’d given potential sponsors. Rey, quiet, knit her brow at this.

“Artificial time…” She didn’t like anything about that suggestion.

“Let’s get the blacklights on out there, please!” Kaydel waved at the control box, and there was a brief moment of quiet before an electrical buzzing sound and then a number of blacklights lit up inside the paddock--and then all of the lights went out.

“What the--” Ben tried looking around in the dark but couldn’t see anything like this, and it was not ideal. Near him he could hear Rey’s voice.

“Is this _supposed_ to be happening?” Kaydel sounded impatient.

“What’s going on in there?” She called at the control station, and a voice came over the intercom system.

“A minor electrical surge. We’re going back online now.” Ben didn’t like the sound of that. Rey didn’t like the sound of that.  
There was a slow thudding noise beginning to come from the paddock foliage.

The viewing center went quiet. The lights came back on, and outside the window in the dim paddock, trees began to rustle.

“There she is,” the first words Hux had said since they entered the building, and Rey glanced back at him in surprise for a split-second before turning back to the window. Something huge was moving in the trees, getting closer to them in the viewing room.

  


A moment passed, and a pig--a _large_ pig--was released into the paddock. There was a shock of daylight from the doorway that was unlatched to let the animal in, and then a sound of grinding metal and a beeping sound. The footsteps stopped. Rey frowned.

“What’s happening?” Daylight was still streaming in through the door the pig had been released through. She pointed to the still-open entry hurriedly, “That doesn’t directly lead out, does it? That door needs to be closed, what’s going on?” Kaydel had turned to the control booth, her voice anxious and quick.

“Can we get that door closed immediately? What’s going on?” More beeping that suggested efforts were being made, and the door still wasn’t closing. Instead, the overhead lights had come back on inside their viewing area, while the paddock was still dark. Rey was immediately striding for the door outside.

“That door can be closed manually, right?” Kaydel turned to her quickly, trying to wave her back.

“Rey--wait, we’re getting it handled, don’t--” But Rey was already outside. Ben glanced from the exit to Kaydel and then Dr. Hux, who hadn’t moved, and then finally went for the door himself.

 

Rey was rushing down the steps to where she saw a few maintenance workers trying to rush and get the automatic door back down. She leapt over the thin railing on the stairs and hit the ground running, going to meet them at the caged-in holding area just outside the stuck door. So it _didn’t_ necessarily lead directly out, but that cage certainly wouldn’t hold anything T-Rex sized.

“Hey--where’s the emergency panel?” She shouted over their hurried confusion, and someone directed her to a small electrical panel near the door latch.

Ben was quickly taking two steps at a time until he’d gotten to the ground, running to follow Rey over to the workers, but by the time he’d gotten to them Rey had pulled the face off of the panel and was fiddling with the wiring inside the wall. Ben skidded to a stop as Rey yelled again.

“All right door’s getting unlatched--” she glanced at her hands in the wiring, “Now!” there was a loud beep and a screeching sort of noise, and Rey rushed to the doorway with the others as the thick metal door popped free of the wall, but didn’t close. “We have to shut it and then I can lock it again!”

Immediately the team sprang into action, Rey and the four men standing there working to hurry and push the thick door shut. Ben moved to help, but Rey nodded at the open wiring in the wall.

“Hey, go to the wires--touch yellow to the red and white!” Ben moved to the panel and hurriedly looked for what she meant, finding them and hesitating.

“Yellow to re--”

“Yellow to red and white, yellow to red and white!” He felt his heart race and nodded, a little embarrassed and a little panicked.

“Al--all right! I got them--” there was a pop and a little snap of electricity that made Ben jump. Rey nodded, pushing with the others, trying not to focus on the thudding footfalls she could hear getting closer--if that thing got through they would all be trapped in that tiny cage with it.

“Put the panel back over them! It’s still connected, just push it back over them! When we get this thing shut you just push the lock button!” Ben’s large hands fumbled with the panel until he nearly slammed it back into the wall, fingers hovering once it was in again.

“Lock button, lock button, lock button…” He was muttering under his breath, hearing large footsteps and starting to shake.

“The big fucking orange button!” Rey shouted, and she could see huge, clawed feet heading for them inside the paddock as they pushed the door shut. She felt sweat break out on her in panic, her voice raising, “Push it! _Now!_ ”

It was instantaneous. Ben slammed the heel of his palm into the button and there was a hard thumping sound as the door latched shut again. Rey and the maintenance workers had all fallen back from the door, breathing hard, but nothing else came.  
Finally, a shared sigh of relief. Rey exhaled loudly and nodded at the workers who all thanked her and nodded at Ben before heading off again, leaving Rey and Dr. Solo alone.

 

Ben adjusted his glasses and raked a slightly trembling hand through his hair, trying to steady his heartbeat as Rey walked a little closer to him.

“All right?” She asked, giving him a half-mustered smile. He nodded quickly.

“I’m--yeah. I’m fine. Are you--are you okay? That was…” Rey nodded.

“I’m fine. Glad that didn’t turn into another raptor incident,” she joked, and he nodded, running his hand through his hair again. Rey watched him, noting how he was trying to smile but not meeting her gaze.

“Yeah, me too,” he breathed, and rubbed the back of his neck a little. “That was really, uh, something. With the wires and all,” he gestured vaguely with one hand before thinking it seemed a little too animated and then straightening his blazer. “You--uh--you’re...handy."

Dead silence fell between them and Dr. Solo looked like he was going to walk right into the paddock they’d just closed up.

Rey glanced away, trying not to make him feel more awkward and failing as he was mentally kicking himself and wishing that goddamn dinosaur had gotten loose just so it could eat him right now. _‘You’re handy’_ what the fuck was wrong with him...

“Well, I do my best,” she offered, shrugging, and he chanced another look at her. She wasn’t looking at him, thank god, but he felt his mouth go a little dry looking at _her_ . She’d just...just _sprung_ into action, just like before, had just gone right to it and then pushed that huge door shut with the other men--

“We should...probably go back in, yeah?” she spoke up again and he swallowed, nodding, realizing he’d zoned out just looking at her. When he caught sight of her face, though, she’d ducked her head a little but...she was smiling.

  
  


“So does this happen around here a lot?” Rey had folded her arms over her chest looking at Kaydel once she and Ben were inside the complex building again. The lights were back on and the paddock was clear, the domed ceiling back to its translucent state. Kaydel Connix looked a bit pinched.

“No, it doesn’t--we’re looking into the electrical failure now. This was just…” she waved a little dismissively, “...A fluke.” Ben frowned, brow knitting behind his glasses.

“That’s a hell of a fluke. Those men could have been hurt, Miss Kenobi could have been hurt--” he caught himself as Rey went a bit still nearby. “--Since she--she jumped in to help like that!”

“You could have had a bigger problem on your hands, Kaydel. You could have had a dinosaur loose--and that thing is a big fucking wild card!” Rey stepped forward to cut in, gesturing at the clear paddock before Dr. Solo could say anything else--quickly changing the subject when she saw Kaydel’s brow go up slightly.

“I know, Rey--as I said, we’re--we’re looking into it right now.” She sounded flustered and Rey backed down just slightly.

“I know this isn’t your job exactly, Kay, but you have a serious risk factor in this damn cage. You have no idea what that thing is capable of, and if she got loose…” Rey shook her head, glaring at Kaydel and Dr. Hux both, making a very firm gesture towards the paddock and taking a step forward, clearly ready to raise hell. “This is _so_ much more than the raptors. You need to make sure this isn’t gonna happen again--if they hadn’t gotten that door shut in time--”

“Miss Kenobi--” Hux cut in, stepping closer to her, hands folded behind his back, his demeanor entirely, unnervingly, placid. “If you would be so kind, perhaps Dr. Solo would like a look at some of the roaming plains; I believe Miss Connix can oversee things here and we can all regroup once this has been sorted out.”

Rey opened her mouth to say something, still glaring up at him, but stopped, knowing her temper was about to get the better of her. She exhaled, looking down and nodding, licking her lips aggravatedly.

“Fine, yeah.” She turned to Dr. Solo, taking a breath and swallowing some before nodding at the door. “I’m parked outside.” Ben took a small breath, glancing at Miss Connix and Dr. Hux, but Kaydel had hurriedly gone over to the control booth to excuse herself from the situation and Hux was very obviously watching Rey, which made Ben’s lips twist up a little.

Without a second thought he turned to follow Rey out of the building, taking a few quick steps to catch up to her.

  


“So, ah,” he started, moving to hold the door open for her but she’d just ducked under his arm and shoved it open herself. He paused a moment before exiting after her, pushing his glasses up and hurrying down the stairs to catch up to her again.

“Miss Kenobi--” He started, striding over the gravel towards the waiting jeep with her, watching her throw the driver side door open and swing in, slamming it shut behind herself. He swallowed a little, running a hand through his hair and getting into the jeep with her, closing his door a bit more gingerly than she had before finding his seatbelt. “Miss Kenobi--”

“Rey.” She cut him off, starting the engine and not looking at him.

“...Er...Rey,” He amended with a small nod, adjusting his sleeves, “Are you…”

“I don’t need to get into this with you, with all _due_ respect,” It did not sound like she thought there was much of it, “And what I have to say isn’t _professional_ , Doctor.” Her hands were firm on the steering wheel and the gear shift as she pulled the jeep out of the complex parking area and skidded them over the gravel before speeding towards the western gate.

“I--that’s…” He shook his head some. “I mean I don’t work _here_ , but if there’s something the company should know about how things are _going_ here…” Rey’s hand creaked around the steering wheel as her grip tightened, her eyes on the dirt service road they were on now.

“I don’t know what your job with the First Order is, but at the park, things are not just all inside and controlled in a fucking lab,” she growled, “These are living, breathing animals--they’re miracles of science but they’re also dangerous, and this place has upwards of twenty thousand fucking people here every day to see them. People like Kaydel--I love her, she’s great at her job--but she doesn’t see these animals like I do, like most of the workers do.” Her jaw set, “Dr. Hux doesn’t either, as much work as he does on them all.”  
Ben’s brow furrowed slightly when she mentioned Hux, but he didn’t mention it.

“You...you really care about all of them.” He nodded, taking a breath, and she nodded before he could say anything else,

“They’re _living, breathing_ creatures like the rest of us. We brought them into the world again, we have an obligation to them now, and to everyone who comes here. We can’t just act like they’re animatronics behind glass anymore.”

 

Ben’s eyes found one of the sets of scars on her arm closest to him, and he nodded.

“You seem like you understand that better than most of the people I’ve dealt with here.” She snorted in response.

“I’ve been on the wrong end of a raptor,” she retorted rather sardonically, but then her face softened some, “But it’s not all bad, not all of the work, not all of the animals. The raptors…” She took a breath, and could _feel_ his eyes on the visible scars, now. “The raptors are just that: velociraptors. Their instincts are primal, it’s like handling a tiger, or a lion, or even a wolf--these creatures are just _bigger_ . They’re smart, they understand commands--but…”  
Ben studied her as she talked. She was passionate about this, he could see it on her face.

“How long have you been with them?” His voice was curious, but soft.

“Three years now.” She kept her eyes on the road, but he could already see the shift in her demeanor. He tried not to stare.

“So you’ve been with them a while now…” She nodded.

“Since they hatched. They imprinted on me--they know me. That’s why I can work so closely with them. They have a pack dynamic; they hunt that way.” Ben looked fascinated by this, looking at her as she spoke even if she was driving.

“Tell me about them. About your work with them.” She glanced over at him a little as they drove, but the intent and genuinely interested look on his face made her smile as she looked back at the road.

“They’re _amazing_ creatures, Dr. Solo…”

  


They drove a good ways out into the fields, Rey talking about her work. They’d been out over an hour, driving the perimeter of what Rey had called The Eastern Plains of the park. There was green grass and a line of forest trees that stretched for miles, and Ben knew he was supposed to be there monitoring progress and overseeing some of the financial developments, but listening to Rey talk about the raptors was engrossing.

If he was honest, it was...it was attractive, someone so involved in and so passionate about their work like this. And Rey was...Rey herself was…

He’d gone a little pink at one point listening and had to turn to look out his passenger window, pushing his glasses up his nose and willing his face to turn the normal color.

“Here,” she’d pulled them through a large entry gate and driven directly into the plains finally, waving to the guards as they passed through, “Let’s get a closer look in here.” Ben’s eyes widened and he rolled his window down, looking around with interest.

“What’s...what’s in this enclosure?” Rey laughed as the terrain got rougher, jostling them in the jeep a little.

“Herbivores--and some smaller carnivores, like Compys.” Ben blinked.

“Compys…?”

“Er--Compsognathus. The, er, the little guys.” He nodded, smiling broadly at the little nickname.

“That’s--that’s cute. 'Compys'.” Rey snorted, laughing at it herself.

“They run around in here, but they’re not much of a threat to people if you leave them alone.” He nodded thoughtfully, looking back out the window as she drove. He hadn’t seen a dinosaur here aside from the raptors and the Erebosaur--and he intended to do his job, he always had, but in coming here he’d been excited to finally be back at the park, to be able to see the other animals.  
Finally, however, he got his wish.  


They’d driven up the crest of a small hill and once they got to the top, Ben’s breath caught.  
A herd of Stegosaurus grazing just yards from the jeep. As Rey kept driving, Ben stared, watching them--they were so close, and they just let the car pass by them…  
Further, they could see an Ankylosaur lumbering into the trees, and Rey smiled to herself, sneaking glances at him as she drove, slowing the car some.

“It’s been a while since you’ve been to the park?” she asked, but her tone was kind. He nodded, staring at the grazing Stegosaurs as they passed them.

“It has. Last time I was here was about four years ago, and I didn’t leave the main labs.” He shook his head in amazement, gazing around as Rey drove them along the treeline, where he could see more Ankylosaurs joining the first. “This is...amazing.”

“We have a ride here, the Gyrospheres--” He nodded, looking over at her.

“I oversaw some of the development on that. Is this where the guests ride those?” Rey looked surprised at this, nodding.

“Yeah--just not usually out this far.” He’d overseen development on the Gyrospheres? She’d thought he was just a scientist, but... how involved in the park _was_ he?

They kept driving. There was a lake ahead of them a little ways, and they could see all kinds of dinosaurs drinking: Parasaurs honking at the other dinosaurs gathering, four Triceratops jostling one another, a gaggle of ‘Compys’ zipping around the other dinosaurs and one another. The both of them were so engrossed Rey had to slam her foot on the brakes to avoid hitting a herd of Gallimimus that came rushing almost directly in front of the jeep.

The car halted and both Rey and Ben looked startled, but as the Gallimimus passed, the both of them were smiling, watching them go.

  
  


 

 

“All right--the grid is back online, right?” Kaydel had her iPhone out to look over some figures as the staff worked. They’d been at this over an hour now and Kaydel was honestly glad Rey and Dr. Solo had left so they wouldn’t be here for how extensive this problem apparently was.

“It’s back. Should be up and running now.”

“All right. Can I get a test done quickly? Go Night Mode and let’s test the blacklights again.” She was hoping this would get resolved quickly; if this went smoothly they could call Rey and Dr. Solo back for an _actual_ demonstration.

 

The panels on the paddock dome began to go dark, and immediately Kaydel noticed movement. She drifted closer to the glass, watching the trees move and hearing the footsteps getting closer and closer to the viewing enclosure until they were in total darkness, and all noise stopped.

Kaydel blinked in the darkness, straining her eyes as if she might be able to glimpse the Erebosaur in the darkness. She couldn’t see anything, but she felt the glass just in front of her. Why did she feel so unsettled by that bit of movement, by the dinosaur coming closer to them? She probably just knew she was going to be fed, that was all…  
Still, her voice was hesitant and somewhat unnerved when she spoke up again.

“Okay let’s...let’s get the blacklights on, please…"

The blacklights lit up, and all of the color drained from Kaydel Connix’s face.

Directly in front of her, inches from the glass, was the Erebosaurus’ head, jaws slightly parted as the creature seemed to be looking right at her. The huge creature sniffed the air and made a rumbling sort of noise, and Kaydel couldn’t move--layers and layers of thick glass between them and she felt like she was right in front of this animal.

“O-oh god…” She managed to breathe, frozen as the Erebosaurus slowly turned its head, making a clicking sort of sound, sniffing the air and going stock still until it made the clicking noise again.

“What--what is it doing?” Came the voice of one of the workers in the control booth, and Kaydel could only shake her head, feeling her hands trembling slightly.

“I don’t--”

There was a noise from the side of the enclosure, and for a moment nothing moved, nothing made any more sound. Kaydel froze again, trying to think of what it could be--this was not a normal situation. Something about this felt wrong, that the Erebosaurus was acting like this, especially after earlier…  
Another noise, and as the Erebosaur made her way towards the source of the sound, Kaydel realized what it was.

“Tell them to stop outside--tell them not to open the feeding door--” She was practically gasping the words out, rushing for the control booth. The Erebosaur was going for the feeding door that had jammed earlier, mouth slightly open, making more clicking sounds as she picked up her pace.

Another noise, and the worker at the controls was clearly trying to tell the feeders outside to stop, but then there was a screech of metal, and a sliver of sunlight, and Kaydel felt her blood freeze as she slowly turned to the paddock interior.  


The door had come slightly open, and for a moment the world went frozen and silent, but then everything exploded.

 

With a roar that almost sounded like a shriek, the Erebosaurus had rushed the slightly-open door and battered herself against it, lodging her nose far enough that she could shove it all the way open.

Daylight streamed in through the open doorway and the Erebosaur roared again, rearing her head back and shaking her huge head at the sting of the light in her eyes, but once she seemed to get her bearings she roared at the now open doorway and the two workers and feeder pig trapped in the small pen ahead of her.

 

Kaydel was shaking, screaming the moment the door opened and rushing for the controls to grab a walkie-talkie.

“I need a security team to the E4 Building immediately-- _I need a security team to the E4 Building_ **_immediately!_ ** ” She shouted into the receiver. In the doorway the Erebosaurus was wrestling her way through, there were screams from the workers and the pig, and Kaydel watched in horror as the pig was immediately eaten, but while one of the workers got the cage door open, the other was crushed as the massive dinosaur fought her way out, pig blood dripping from her mouth.

Kaydel was still on the walkie, trying to follow the dinosaur’s movement while staying in the viewing enclosure--if she left this building now, she’d be walking right into that dinosaur.

“I need a security team here _NOW_ ,” she shouted, “All available security units to the E-Complex _IMMEDIATELY!_ We have a containment breach!” She slammed the walkie down and went for an intercom button on the control panel, hearing more screaming from outside and then a sickening crunch that made her feel nauseated as she pressed the call button.

  
  


 

 

In the main branch of Research and Development, Rose Tico worked as a dispatcher and part-time data analyst. Her days were spent behind her desk and computer screens, with a headset on and a keyboard at her fingertips. Nothing exciting happened in the call center.

_“--SE--ROSE!”_ it was Kaydel Connix’s voice, panicked and loud over her headset.

“Kaydel? What--”

_“Rose! Get everything east of the E-Complex sealed off right now! Have the gates locked down, shut down the Gyrospheres. Keep the guests all close to the main park!”_

Rose’s eyes were wide, her face pale. Behind her, Poe Dameron and their new friend Finn were sitting in the swivel chairs of two empty desks, where they’d been talking with her for the last hour, and when Rose went on alert they both went quiet, watching in concern as Rose hurriedly punched in a code on her keyboard and then patched herself through to the main com line that reached everyone at the park.

“Attention all Jurassic World Staff Members, everything beyond the E-Complex in the Eastern Wing of the park is now on lockdown. All staff are asked to return to the park center immediately, to help ensure guest safety. I repeat--”

  
  


 

 

Out in the Eastern Plains, Rey and Dr. Solo had gotten out of the jeep to wade into the green grass, watching the grazing herbivores from a closer distance. It was quiet, peaceful; Rey was smiling mostly at Dr. Solo’s reaction to all of it, but watching these creatures like this was satisfying, and still never ceased to amaze her.

“They let you get pretty close, depending,” She offered, taking a few steps down the grassy knoll they were on and letting him follow her. “You just move slow and quiet.” they stopped again, now closer to a group of grazing Parasaurs.

“This is like...it’s like stepping back in time.” Ben said quietly, shaking his head in amazement. “I’ll never get over it, what’s been done here.” Rey turned to gaze up at him for a moment, smiling a little to herself at how genuine the statement was. He really meant it, had that same kind of excitement in his work that...well...that she did in hers. He turned to look at her and she opened her mouth to say something, but they were both cut off by a screech from the walkie talkie on her hip.

 

_“--All staff are asked to return to the park center immediately to help ensure guest safety. I repeat: everything beyond the E-Complex in the Eastern Wing of the park is now on lockdown. All staff are asked to return to the park center immediately to help ensure guest safety. This is a Code 19. I repeat: this is a Code 19.”_

 

Rose. Rey’s eyes widened and she went still, hand gripping the small communication device on her belt.

“Fucking hell. What did they do--” She turned to face where they’d left the jeep, and Ben stopped her, taking her arm, his eyes worried.

“What’s a Code 19?”

 

Rey turned to him, her mouth a grim line.

“Asset out of containment.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _they said the thing_


	5. the most dangerous game

“‘Asset out of containment?’” Ben was tromping through the grass behind Rey as they hurried to get back to the jeep, “You don’t think it’s the--” Rey swung the driver’s side door open and frowned at him, her eyes narrowing.

“You heard that announcement. ‘Everything beyond the E-Complex’ those fucking idiots did something and that thing got out--and I don’t know enough about it to really know what to think, but I know caged animals.” She slammed the door shut and he quickly jumped into the passenger seat next to her.

“If she got out, they’ve got to neutralize her. There’s no way they can get her sedated like that, we have no idea what she even _is._ ”

“ _She_ has no idea what she even is.” Rey immediately floored it, heading them back towards the gate they’d come in through. “But she’s going to find out real, real fast now that she’s loose. We need to get back to that complex _right now_.”  
Ben could not have agreed more.

  
  


The gate was shut down.

Rey hit the brakes and both of them were lurched forward, Dr. Solo holding onto his glasses and trying to stay in his seat. Rey leaned her body out the driver side window and scanned the gate before slumping back into her seat and slamming a hand on the steering wheel.

“FUCK--they locked it down already!” Ben looked at her worriedly as she rapidly put the car back into gear and skidded around on the dirt, turning them to head back out into the fields.

“Locked it down--so wait, what does that mean?” He was trying not to think about them being trapped in here, but it certainly seemed like they were trapped in here. Rey’s eyes were focused on the terrain ahead of them.

“It means we need to get to the South Gate and hope they haven’t just left us out here.”

“South Gate?”

“This one was the closest to the complex. If we’re lucky they won’t have shut the South Gate down just yet to make sure all the staff and any guests are out of this area.” Immediately Ben felt better about this.

“How far out are we?”

“A good few miles. We can make it though. We’re gonna make it.” Ben hoped she was right. Rey hoped she was right, too.  
  


 

“Rose--Rose, this is Rey, you there?” Rey had gotten onto her walkie again as she drove. Rose’s voice came crackling through.

_“Rey! Oh my god, where are you right now?!”_

“Not where I want to be. Rose the South Gate of the Eastern Plains is still open, right?”

_“The South Gate? What?”_

“Is it open or not!?”

_“Yes--yeah--yes, it’s open! Jesus, Rey you’re not out there are you?!”_ Rose’s voice was tight and afraid. Rey didn’t like that at all.

“We’re trying to get back in. The North Gate got locked down by the time we got back there. We’re heading for the South Gate now--what the _fuck_ is going on?!” A garbled noise and then a male voice, Rey’s brow shot up.

_“They got some new dino, Rey--this thing is huge and it’s loose. We got security footage from the E4 Building and it’s killed two people already.”_

“Poe?” Her face hardened. Two people? Fuck. “I know--I know about the new dino--Where is Kaydel? Dr. Hux? What’s happening with this thing, do we even know where it is?” Rose’s voice again.

_“We’re getting more info now; I’m getting a live feed pulled up of her tracker. Kaydel and Dr. Hux are both on their way here now.”_

  
  


They drove, and Ben tried getting into the park’s computer system through his iPad. Rey glanced over finally, raising an eyebrow.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to see if I can get into the park’s tracking system. There should be a tracker on all of the dinosaurs in the park--we saw to that security measure when we were first letting them all out of captivity.” Rey nodded slowly.

“There is--there are, yes. You think you can find out where she is?”

“So long as they did their jobs and put the tracker in her, I can definitely try.” Rey nodded, glancing over at him again and finding herself smiling a little as she focused back on the path ahead.

“That’s a good plan.” Ben glanced at her as she drove, noticing her small smile, and he felt his own mouth curve up as he turned back to the tablet screen.

“The system’s moving a little slow. Probably because we’re out this far. I’ll find her.” He was determined, and he wasn’t entirely sure if this was because he felt like Rey was impressed with his idea or because he really did not want to run into this dinosaur out in the open.

“She’s killed _two people_ ,” Rey shook her head, angry. “This is already out of control.”

_“Rey!”_ Rey grabbed the walkie from the dashboard.

“Rose! What’s going on, you find anything out?” Rose sounded panicked.

_“We found her tracker, Rey you need to get out of there she’s in the plains--she’s in the plains with you two!”_ Rey inhaled a sharp breath and Dr. Solo’s attention snapped to the walkie conversation.

“Where, Rose? Give me a ballpark of where she is, _something_!”

_“We found your locator and she’s about eight miles west of you right now but she’s moving!”_ Rey’s hand gripped the communicator.

“Rose, how did she get out? How did she get out of that paddock?” There was a pause and Rose sounded confused, like she wasn’t sure why Rey was asking this.

_“Security shows she pushed through the feeding door.”_ Rey’s eyes were hard and she put the walkie down.

“She remembered what happened earlier. She has to have. Kaydel said this hadn’t happened before.”

  
  


Ben continued trying to get his tracker to update as they drove.

“If we can at least figure out where she is then we can avoid her--” He paused, and Rey heard a quiet beeping from the iPad.

“What?”

“There’s…”

“Did you find her?”

“I don’t--there’s a signal, but it’s staying still. It’s not moving at all, and it’s--” He shook his head, brow knitting. “I don’t understand, there’s…” Rey frowned.

“ _Where is she?_ ”

“This can’t be right, there’s at least seven other trackers and they’re all completely still--if this _is_ right--”

“Dr. Solo, _where the fuck is this dinosaur_?!” Ben’s head snapped up from the iPad and his eyes went wide in horror.

“--If this is right then she’s right in front of us!” Rey hit the brakes.

  
  


The tracking information was right. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was not what they had expected.

There was no sign of the Erebosaurus, even if her tracker was still showing up on the screen. The other trackers Ben had showing up were other dinosaurs.

There was an Ankylosaur lying on the grass with a chunk torn out of it’s belly about four yards from the jeep. Rey put the vehicle in park and immediately got out without hesitation, her eyes wide at the sight ahead. Beyond the Ankylosaur were two Parasaurs, both with torn up sides, and beyond that were at least four Apatosaurs, lying prone on the grass. They walked closer to the Ankylosaur and found a chunk of dark, bloody flesh impaled on one of it’s spikes, a blinking tracking device buried in the muscle.

“That’s why she was being still,” Dr. Solo got out stonily, and Rey scowled.

“She got it out. Now we really don’t have any chance of finding her this way, and all of this…”

Rey stood stock-still in the grass, feeling her heart clench in her chest. A moment later, Dr. Solo had slowly moved to stand next to her without a sound, and Rey swallowed hard as they both surveyed the scene, but before either one of them could speak, there was a noise--one of the Apatosaurs was still alive, if barely, lifting its head and groaning sadly.

Rey immediately ran to it, slowing when she neared the animal’s head and slowly going to her knees next to the dying creature. It had been badly hurt--its long neck was torn in more than one place and its sides had been viciously slashed into. Rey slowly, carefully rested a hand under the Apatosaur’s eye, gently stroking the keening dinosaur and shaking her head as Dr. Solo made his way over to her on shaky legs.

Slowly, Ben went to one knee next to Rey, and when Rey looked up, steeling herself for indifference, she found Dr. Solo had tucked his glasses up into his dark hair and was wiping at his face with a large hand, swallowing thickly as he gazed down at the dinosaur. Rey’s throat tightened and she looked away, feeling tears stinging her own eyes.  
With a gentle hand, she took one of Ben’s hands and rested it carefully on the Apatosaur’s nose.

“There’s nothing we can do,” she whispered softly, and she felt Dr. Solo’s hand trembling slightly as he rubbed the Apatosaur’s leathery snout.

“Shh, girl…” his voice was soft and tremulous, and Rey felt her stomach clench at how gentle it sounded. “I’m sorry,” he murmured to the Apatosaur, shaking his head, “I’m sorry.”

Rey’s hand rested on top of his and she glanced over at him, giving a little nod of support as the Apatosaur made another long groaning sound and then lay still, her eyes slowly closing.  
Ben’s hands withdrew slowly and returned to his side and to wipe his face again.

“Damn it,” he choked out, “Damn it.” Rey sat back on her legs and took a deep, shaking breath, wiping at her own eyes before getting to her feet.

“She’s figuring out what all of these other things are. She’s--she’s doing this for sport.” She shook her head, swallowing and gazing over the other fallen dinosaurs, “If we don’t stop her even more of them are going to die.”

“They’re my favorite,” Ben managed to get out a moment later, putting his glasses back on his nose and raking a shaky hand through his hair. Rey looked over at him in mild confusion as he sat next to the dead Apatosaur. “The herbivores. The...the sauropods. They were always my favorite dinosaurs.” Rey watched him for a moment, sucking her lips into her mouth a bit. She reached a hesitant hand to rest on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

“I wanted to get to see them while I was here--I spend so much time at the main labs, we don’t get to see what all of this work turns into. I came here so many times when I was a kid, and these were the only dinosaurs they’d let me see. They were safe. Wouldn’t eat you. Weren’t dangerous.” Rey listened in silence, and her fingers pressed into his shoulder gently.

“There are more, y’know.”

“These didn’t need to die like this.” Rey swallowed hard, nodded.

“No. They didn’t.” His hands clenched and unclenched on his thighs and he swallowed hard, throat tight at the sight of the dead dinosaur in front of him. These were the only animals he’d truly wanted to see here. They were the only thing he’d been looking forward to--and now the first time he’d seen one in person in over fifteen years, and she died under his hand.

 

Rey’s hand on his shoulder was a welcome comfort, at least. She wasn’t judgemental, wasn’t condescending, just understanding. She let him have the moment he needed to gather himself and when he stood again, she didn’t say anything about any of it, just stood with him in silence and took in the sight of the slaughtered herbivores scattered around them.  
Silently, she let her hand rest on his arm, and he was glad for it. Glad she was here with him, even in a situation like this, even though they barely knew each other.

“We need to go.” Rey spoke up after a quiet moment, and Ben nodded.

“If she did this she’s either around here still or could come back.” Rey nodded.

“We’ve got to get to the gate. Rose won’t let them lock us in here, but we can’t take too long.” She took a deep breath, “And I can’t say I really want to face that thing down myself, car or no.”

  
  
  


They sped through the grassy terrain for the South Gate, and Rey was on the walkie with Rose again.

“It’s been torn out, Rose--there’s no use in trying to track her anymore! That was at least eight other dinos she took out that we counted and now we have _no idea_ where she is!”  


 

On Rose’s end in the command center, Poe and Finn were gathered around her workspace along with several other workers, listening to all of this as the display screens at the front of the room confirmed what Rey was telling them. A team had been sent out to the site of the Erebosaur’s tracker, and one of them was currently holding the piece of ripped flesh in their gloved hand, showing the tracking device to Rose and the others via livefeed from a body cam the entire retrieval squad wore.

“Yeah I’m seeing it now, Rey--Retrieval has a visual for me!”

_“Retrieval? Rose this isn’t a_ **_retrieval_ ** _situation--she’s killed two people and at LEAST eight other animals, this needs to be a takeout!”_ Rey’s voice was furious and Rose looked like she agreed but couldn’t really voice that.

“I’m going by what I was told--Kaydel sent out Retrieval, you know I don’t have any say! They don’t have any visual on her yet but they’re tracking her old-world style now.”

_“Rose I don’t know how many are on that team but you need to have them called back unless they’re armed for lethal measures. You hear me?  She took out an Ankylo and four Apatosaurs and that was after she was hurt! She didn’t eat them either, Rose--she’s figuring out where she fits on the food chain, and by now she knows she’s a hell of a lot higher than us!”_ Poe shook his head, brow knitting as he looked up at the numerous live feeds from the Retrieval squad next to names, photographs, and heart monitors attached to each of the team members that had been sent out. They’d gotten into a section of forest, dense brush and trees all around them.

“They’re not equipped to take this thing down--we gotta get them back in, Rose.” Rose looked helpless, but finally set her jaw and punched in a code on her computer.

“Retrieval--Retrieval, this is Rose Tico in Central Command. I need all of you to return immediately!” Her call was heard on the main display, broadcast thanks to the body cams to the entire room.

_“Sorry, we got sent out by the higher-ups, Rose. No can do. We’re bringing her back with us.”_ Rose desperately mashed the call button again.

“You don’t understand--you’re not packing enough for this thing! I need the entire squad back in right now--”

 

There was a thudding sound in her ears and on the display screen, and everything immediately went silent, all eyes going to the display.

 

Footsteps. Big ones. Retrieval was hunkering down, ready to ambush the giant, apex predator that was approaching them.  
Everyone present in Central Command seemed to go still. Rose’s face went pale as they all could hear members of the Retrieval squad hurriedly hissing orders at one another. They were waiting, but the footsteps had stopped, and Rose was too afraid to say anything else into their headsets for fear of creating more noise--but something was making her very, very afraid.

_“I can’t get a read on any thermal signature!”_ Hushed voices from the team.

_“There’s no movement, everyone hold.”_ The feeds showed nothing, no movement, no trace of anything ahead of any of the team.

“Why can’t they see anything…” Finn’s brow knit. This was a dinosaur, a huge, T-Rex-sized dinosaur from what they were understanding. Why couldn’t they see it? And thermal not showing anything…

A movement in the brush and everyone went on alert. Something in the shadows of the trees seemed to glimmer out at them and then slowly out of the shade came an odd clicking sound, and a massive shape emerged--and Rose let out a very, very soft gasp.

“Those men are all gonna die,” Poe breathed, and Rose, breathless, high-pitched and desperate, slammed down the call button again and shouted into the receiver, her eyes glued to the display screen with all the others present.

“Retrieval I need you all to disengage, disengage and return to base _NOW!_ ”

From the screen, there was a bone-chilling roar, and indistinct shouting.  


Rose’s hands were shaking as she held her headset, having leapt to her feet and out of her chair. She, Finn, Poe, and the other workers could only watch in horror as the Retrieval team tried, and failed, to sedate the _enormous_ carnivore. Tasers, net guns, tranquilizers--everything was swatted away, bitten through, ineffective.

One by one, the live feeds went black, and heartbeats flatlined. Rose had a hand over her mouth, choking back a shuddering, sobbing gasp when the last member of the team flatlined. Silence fell over the room and Rose was shaking as Finn reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder.  
Poe shook his head again, his voice tense.

“Nobody else can go out after this thing unless they’re armed to take it out. It’s a suicide mission otherwise.” He turned to Rose, “We need to find Kaydel _right now_ .”  
  
  


 

Out in the plains, Rey and Ben were still speeding along southbound, unaware of what had just taken place a few miles south of where they had been earlier.

“I’m going to be doing some serious overhaul with security,” Ben was snarling, aggravatedly punching at the keyboard of his tablet, “And with emergency response!” Rey glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as she drove, a little surprised at how furious he looked now.

“Let’s get back to command for now--we’re not far from the gate, we get back to the main park and we find out what’s going on, and then-- _SHIT_ \--!” The jeep skidded sideways so hard it threatened to roll over, slinging both of them around in their seats. A herd of stampeding dinosaurs was heading right for them, about to hit them until Rey turned, trying to veer around the galloping bodies to avoid hitting them, but another wave of huge, terrified animals came from another direction, surrounding their jeep, and had them flooring the vehicle in the same direction they were running to avoid hitting any of them and to avoid being trampled.

Rey was white-knuckling the steering wheel and Ben was holding onto the car door and the dashboard, staring out at the horde of moving bodies, the sounds of their footfalls nearly deafening.

“What the fuck is going on?!” He shouted over the noise, and Rey shook her head.

“They’re scared! None of them know where they’re going, something spooked them and I think it’s safe to say we both know what!” She shouted back, trying to figure out what they could do. They had to make it to the gate, but now they were getting so far off-course--

She slammed on the brakes and swung the jeep sideways again when the herd finally left them behind, but she had to turn again to avoid a ravine to one side of them and hitting a few stragglers to the other, one of which was a frightened Triceratops that wound up headbutting the jeep down into the ravine, its’ two passengers still inside.


	6. forget about what i said when i thought i was gonna die

Rey woke with a start to a crackling shout coming, over and over again.

 

She was on her side--no, sitting up?--everything hurt; she could smell something like smoke and metal, but she figured out that was blood a moment or two later, and her eyes flew open.

She and Dr. Solo were still in the park jeep, which was on its’ side--or something adjacent to that. She was at an angle right now and wasn’t sure what to make of that. Forcing herself to move, she fumbled with the seatbelt buckle and tore off of herself, reaching for Ben and trying to figure out where the shouting she could hear was coming from. Things were hazy--she had a slight ringing in her ears and felt dazed, and her nose was bloody, but somehow, _miraculously_ , she didn’t feel anything broken.

“Dr. Solo,” she shoved at his arm, feeling around the foot of the jeep for her walkie talkie, “Dr. Solo--” She kept shaking him; he was breathing, she could see it, but he needed to wake up. “BEN!” She yelled, and he jolted up with a shout, hit the limit of his seatbelt, and fell back again, breathing hard and staring at her. One of the lenses of his glasses was a little cracked and he had a bruise forming around a slight trickle of blood down his head where the frames must have hit.

Rey found the walkie and started trying to climb out of the jeep, but as soon as she started trying to shove the dented-in door open, the jeep shuddered, and both of them went totally still. Rey carefully peeked out the window and found they’d stopped on _another_ ledge, and this one plateaued out on one side but if the vehicle fell again they’d be in the ocean, and probably smashed on the rocks below them.

“So...we need to get out of this car, right now.” Ben was rubbing his head some, wincing and making a face when he saw the blood on his palm.

“Yeah, that...that sounds good…” He lurched forward, though, and Rey’s arm shot out to stop him as the jeep shivered again.

“Not to alarm you or anything but please don’t do that or we are, seriously, going to die.”

“...What.”

“Just--uh--all right. All right--I’m gonna get us out, just...do exactly what I tell you, okay?” Dr. Solo was white as a sheet by now, but nodded.

“Right, okay--what...is happening?”

“I feel like it’s probably better if I don’t tell you that right this second.”

“ _Rey_ \--”

“Just--just unbuckle your seatbelt and sit tight. Give me a second, okay? Don’t move.”

 

Ben did not like this one bit. Rey started to very slowly and very carefully shimmy out the driver’s side window, and in his slight haze he had to tell himself this was not the time to be looking at her ass in the jeans she was wearing. Even if it did look very nice.  
He had to turn away, smacking himself in the head only to hit near his bruise and yelp slightly. Rey stopped cold.

“Are you okay--what happened?!”

“Nothing!” He replied hastily, “Nothing--keep--keep going it’s fine, I'm fine!” He might have some brain damage, but otherwise yeah he was fine for now.

“Okay--listen seriously, just don’t move!”

“Not moving!” He focused on the shattered windshield instead, managing to see his iPad, cracked and totally destroyed in the foot of the jeep, and groaned. Son of a bitch, there went their best way of staying on top of things from out here, not to mention his information on the park. And about $800, too.

 

Rey got free of the car, and hopped to the ground, trying to survey the situation better. Okay…there was no way he was making it out through the window like she had. The back of the jeep was hanging over the edge, but--

“Okay,” her voice was muffled some from outside of the jeep, “Stay put for a second and just...hunker down a little, hide your head, okay? After I do this you need to very carefully climb to the driver’s seat.”

“After you do _what_ ?” He shouted back, and then through some of the cracks he could see her, and then _felt_ her climb onto the jeep.

“I’m gonna break the windshield.”

“WHAT--” He ducked his head into his jacket, however, because before he could say anything else her boot slammed into the already-cracked glass. The jeep shuddered.

Another slam of her boot. He felt the car wobble slightly and some glass flaked out onto the dashboard.

“Rey I don’t know if this is--” SLAM! Her foot came through the windshield, taking a good-sized chunk of broken glass with it, and he could see Rey through the hole peering in at him.

“Okay quick--just--shit just shove through, hurry!” The jeep was very slightly moving, he could feel it, and Rey had tried kicking the hole a little bigger for him, but Ben stared at her with doubt in his eyes.

“I don’t--Rey I don’t think this is gonna work--” He was afraid, if he was honest, he was afraid, and he was much bigger than she was, and this was not going to work, but she thrust her hand out to him and met his eyes.

“It’s going to work!” She shouted, “Do you trust me?” He spluttered a minute but Rey waved her hand at him impatiently, “ _Do you trust me?!_ ”

He really wasn’t sure that he did--not entirely, anyways, they _had_ only just met--but if there was one thing Ben Solo did not want to do right now, it was die.

“Fine! Fine, yes, okay _Aladdin_ , I trust you!” And in a rush of adrenaline and fear and aggravation, he took his blazer off, wrapped his hands in his sleeves, and pushed more of the shattered windshield out of his way as he scrambled through, taking Rey’s hand and letting her pull him over the hood of the car to the ground again as the jeep shivered and slid backwards until finally it fell into the water below.

 

The two of them were on the ground, chests heaving, hands still clutching each other tightly.  
They were covered in dirt and sweat now, but they were alive.

“Are you--are you okay?” Ben was the first to speak, getting to where he could kneel in front of her, peering at her worriedly. Rey nodded.

“I’m good. Are _you_ okay?” He nodded, giving her a small smile.

“Yeah. I’m okay.” Rey smiled back, now, and felt his hand squeeze hers gently. “You saved my life, you know.” He looked over at her a little sheepishly. Rey smiled.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Thank you.” She squeezed his hand back, now.

“You’re welcome.”

 

They sat in silence for a moment, staring out at the ocean and clouds forming in the distance together until Rey spoke up again, grin playing over her lips.

“Aladdin?” Ben went red, abruptly dropping her hand and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“It--it’s in the movie, I don’t know why it came to mind, I was panicking--” he hurried to try and make excuses, but Rey only laughed, watching him go scarlet from the tip of his nose to the tips of his ears.

“No I--that just--” she shook her head, laughing with him, not at him. “It’s funny! It’s--I never would have--that was cute,” she grinned at him, going a little pink and wrinkling her nose some. “But my lips are sealed, if that’s what you want.” His mouth formed a line as she got to her feet and offered him a hand getting up.

“I--it’s just not…” He was still hung up on her calling it ‘cute’ if he was honest, but this was not the time for all that. “I uh, yeah I’d appreciate that…” Rey grinned cheekily at him, starting to try and climb back up the slope they’d originally tumbled down. It wasn’t a terribly steep climb but it would take a few minutes to get back up it like this.

“Can’t have everyone knowing Doctor Solo thinks about Disney movies when he thinks he’s going to die--”

“That’s--” His voice sounded strangled as he tried following her path up the side of the ravine, going red all over again, but Rey laughed and it didn’t really matter. God, even her laugh was attractive. She sounded so _sweet_ \--like...not _childish_ , but...kind? She wasn’t making fun of him, she was just...being friendly. He wondered if she was like this with everyone. Probably so.

 

Rey, meanwhile, was still smiling to herself at the thought of him blushing like that--nose to ears! It was--it was….cute. Charming. _Attractive._

Now was definitely not the time for ‘attractive’ to come up, but Ben stumbled to his feet beside her on the plateau they’d driven off of and went pink again when he realized they were holding hands since she’d helped him up, and Jesus...was he this adorable all the time? This was _not_ what she’d been expecting from a high-up FO worker…

Rey took a moment to re-tie her hair, and they dusted themselves off before Rey’s pocket was screeching again.

 

_“REY! REY PLEASE DON’T BE DEAD, PLEASE ANSWER ME, ARE YOU THERE?!”_ Rey gasped, fumbling for the walkie to respond.

“Oh god--fuck--shit--ROSE!” she shouted hurriedly into the transmitter, “Rose! We’re here--we’re here, we’re alive!”

_“HOLY SHIT--GOD REY WE WERE SO SC--”_ she was cut off by Poe’s voice.

_“REY YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARD YOUR JEEP’S SIGNAL WENT INTO THE GOD DAMN OCEAN I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD--”_

“I’m fine! I’m alive--we’re both alive! Dr. Solo is with me, we got pushed down a ravine and the jeep went into the ocean! We’re back up on solid ground, but we don’t have his iPad anymore, what’s going on?!” Rose came back on the line.

_“Rey you two have to get out of there. We don’t know where she is but--Rey she killed the entire Retrieval Squad. All of them. We--”_ Rey and Ben were both leaned in now, faces ashen as Rose’s voice cracked over the line, _“We saw it, their body cams--Rey you have to get out of there. We can’t track her, she tore her tracker out, we think she’s staying in the forest areas now to stay out of the sun but when the sun goes down…”_ Rey gripped the walkie.

“We’re getting out of here. What’s the status on the gates?”

_“I can get them to leave the South Gate open a little longer, can you two try to make it?!”_ Rey and Ben met eyes over the walkie, and Rey nodded.

“We’re gonna make it. We’re on our way.”

  
  
  


“...So if she’s got day-blindness, then she’ll try avoiding the bright light until it’s dark out and she can see better,” Rey was saying as they tromped through the grass, “So we stay out in the sun, we stick to the fields, we’re good. It’s not far to the gate, and there’s thicker trees nearby, but if we make it to the gate we can get through even if she’s close.”

“That’s...definitely not ideal,” Ben admitted, rolling his sleeves up, his blazer slung over his shoulder, “But you’re right, and it’s a plan. We’re not….not _that_ far from the gate, right?” Rey shook her head.

“Not far. We should be able to see it over this hill up ahead.” But they both stopped in their tracks when, off in the distance, there was the sound of thunder rumbling. They recalled the clouds from over the ocean, and Ben’s voice was quiet.

“If that’s a storm…” Rey took a deep breath.

“There’s about to be a lot less sunlight.”

Both of them started off at a much faster pace, hurrying to the top of the grassy hill and shouting in relief when they saw the gate, still open, two guards standing outside an SUV in the center of the gateway.

Rey had been right about the trees, though, and as the two of them started skidding down the grassy hillside, Ben’s heartbeat was picking up more and more until he could feel light rain on his arms, and the sky was noticeably darker, and by then he was hearing his own heartbeat in his ears. They were close to the treeline, and running for the gate by now, Rey waving her arms at the guards to try and get their attention.

 

The guards looked up, but there was fear on their faces instantly, and Ben felt his blood run cold.

“Rey why--” he huffed, “Why do they--” The two guards were rushing to get in their SUV now, they watched as they slammed the doors shut and were waving at the gate posts. Thunder rumbled louder, and the rain got harder, and Rey tried to run faster.

“What are they doing?!” she screamed over the rising noise, “They can’t _leave_ us--”

There was a noise behind them, and both Rey and Ben gasped audibly, turning against their better judgement to see why the guards were now skidding out of the gateway, letting the large, steel gates shut behind their car.

 

This was nothing like any creature either of them had ever seen before. The rain was falling harder and soaking the two of them now, lightning flashing and illuminating the most terrifying animal Rey had ever seen in her life.

The Erebosaurus Rex was massive--immediately she was recognizably at _least_ the same height as the T. Rex, but she was _black_ ; her leathery hide was jet black, and as she moved towards them in the flashing and then low light, they could see almost iridescent, faintly violet scales running down her sides. Her head had the two ridges in front of her eyes characteristic of an Allosaur, but was too narrow at the nose for a Tyrannosaur, her forearms too long, and down her neck and back were strange dorsal spines that made her look almost like some kind of dragon. As she advanced on them, they could hear the same strange clicking noise they’d heard in the paddock--it was _her_ , letting out a series of rumbling clicks from her throat, hunching forward slightly towards them and scenting the air.

She opened her great, toothy mouth, and let out a roar that was more like a screech, and Rey screamed.

 

“ _RUN!_ ”

 

She grabbed Ben’s arm, and the two of them sprinted for the trees, the closed gate forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :V


	7. something about almost dying

The rain beat down on them as the pair ran, bolting for the trees. Rey’s fingers clutched Ben’s wrist and he’d adjusted his hold, taking her wrist in turn. They ran together, trying to stay upright in the storm until they hit the cover of the trees, but the Erebosaur was right on their heels, roaring and snapping her jaws at them, viciously eager as she gave chase, her footfalls pounding just slightly slower than their heartbeats.

 

They dodged fallen branches, low bushes, rocks--Ben was keeping up with Rey even in his slacks and dress shoes, but Rey didn’t have time to marvel at it.

“We have--we have to find somewhere to hide!” she gasped as they ran, inhaling water and coughing.

“Where?!” Ben shouted back, “There’s nowhere out here--”

“There’s--there’s an old park building somewhere out here!” She remembered suddenly, “We can make it there, we get inside we can hide out--” There was another crack of thunder and Rey visibly jolted, running harder. Ben followed, not knowing where they were going but hoping to God she did.  
  


The Erebosaur was fast--she was on their heels until they hit the denser forest, but she wasn’t lagging by much. They could hear her screeching and clicking at them as they ran, barreling past trees and leaving broken branches and torn vines in her wake. Ben’s shoes were proving a bit harder to run in, but he was keeping pace as best he could--until he tripped, sending both of them crashing through a dense bush, and Rey immediately yanked him up by the arm, trying to get them both to their feet again as the mutant dinosaur chasing them screeched and swiped her huge snout into the bush after them, surging forward to try and reach with her forearms.

One of her talon-like claws caught Rey in the arm and tore across her back, however, snagging on her clothing. Rey bit in a scream, feeling blood already leaking from her skin in the rain.

“Go!” She shouted, shoving Ben forward out of the little branches and trying to scramble after him, “Go, keep running, GO!” But Ben turned around, instead, white as a sheet and soaked, and for a split second he saw her struggling with the huge dinosaur’s claws, but beyond the bush he saw the Erebosaur rearing her head up and readying to snap her jaws down--

Without even thinking, Ben immediately rushed back to Rey, yanking her shirt as hard as he could until the fabric gave and he could pull her out of the way in time for the Erebosaurus to piston her head down and slam her huge jaws shut around bush branches and leaves. They rushed to their feet on the slick leaves coating the forest floor, and kept running.

 

Finally, after spotting their chance up ahead, the two skidded to a sudden halt and ducked out of sight behind a massive boulder, pressing close to the stone and waiting to see if the dino would run past. She did, skidding past the rock with a shrieking roar, and Ben and Rey didn’t waste time celebrating their tiny victory, instead bolting around the boulder and on into the forest as fast as they could, trying to get away in the pouring rain.

Rey was hurting--she knew this wasn’t great and out here, smelling like blood… But the old building had to be nearby. She’d been a few times in the past on survey trips, thinking possibly they could build another raptor containment facility out here, but nothing had gone forward on that, either.

The rain was getting worse; the wind was picking up and the lightning was getting more frequent, and when they finally did find the building, Rey couldn’t have been more relieved.

  
  


The lock system on it was older, but still worked. Her handprint got them in, and once they tumbled in through the door they shut it as fast as they could behind them.

Inside, it was like everything was suddenly muted. Out in the storm had been almost deafeningly loud, but in here, it took a moment or two to adjust to the quiet.

The rain was still loud on the roof, but muffled inside. The building was dark; they hadn’t ever built much of this place, but it was built like an observatory--a viewing chamber with huge windows looking out at the forest, a lab setup in the back, and a small area for staff and security, where they stood now.

 

Rey fumbled on the wall until she found the light panel and tapped it on. They had backup power here, but Rey only turned on the soft emergency lights. Ben looked around the empty security room, nodding when they had light at last and shaking his hair out some.

“We can’t attract attention--you don’t think she’ll be able to see the light in here, do you?”

But when he turned back to Rey, she was slumped against the wall, holding her now very bloody arm, her breath coming harder. Ben inhaled sharply and went to her, leaning in to look at her face, hand hovering where he’d been about to touch her arm.

“Rey--Rey, hey, hey...I’m gonna--we have to move, okay, I can...I can maybe bandage you up or something…” Rey nodded some, trying to move on her own, but she’d already left a thick blood swipe on the wall, and Ben’s eyes widened behind his cracked glasses.

 

He stopped her, a large hand gentle on her unhurt shoulder. He swallowed, taking a breath.

“I’m gonna pick you up, okay?” Rey paused, blinking at him.

“What.”

“Just--” He looked away for a minute, pursing his lips before looking back at her, his nose and ears starting to go a bit pink. “Just let me help you, okay?” Rey looked like she wanted to say something to him but then decided against it, taking a deep breath through her nose and nodding.

“Fine.” His arms started trying to position around her and she gave him a wry glance, “You sure you can do this--”

“I’m trying not to hurt you!”

“Okay well try harder because my knees feel like they might give out.” Ben jerked slightly in surprise, eyes widening.

“O-Oh shit.”

  


He hadn’t been lying about being able to lift her. In fact, he picked her up with a startling amount of ease, and Rey had to glance away from his face a little, though she still winced from the pain in her back as he carried her into the back lab.

Held against his chest like this, there was no denying that...well...he had a chest.

A big one.

Like, really broad. Almost plush with muscle. Rey’s face went a little red and she swallowed tightly as he finally set her down on one of the metal countertops. She rolled onto her stomach and groaned at the effort, squeezing her eyes shut. God damn, this hurt. She was probably going to need stitches, but there was no way that was happening out here.

 

Ben, meanwhile, was starting to get incredibly concerned about the amount of blood she was losing--there was blood on his arms and on his shirt, but he was realizing, as she settled onto her stomach, that he was going to have to bandage her up somehow, and there was nothing in this building but some old jars and electricity.

“See--see if the water works,” Rey bit out, trying to settle in a way that wasn’t going to send shooting pain through her arms. Ben nodded, going for one of the sinks. They were in luck--water came out of the tap and he let it run for a moment, looking around and grabbing a beaker to fill up before returning to where she was.

“Okay, I’ve got to cl--”

“Just do it,” she cut him off, knowing what he was going to say. “Just do it, I can handle it.” Rey pressed her face to the metal counter, cool and hard. Ben swallowed, watching her, and had to cough a little, grateful that her eyes were tightly shut and she couldn’t see how red he’d turned.

“E-er--right, okay, just...stay still…” he swallowed again, feeling his mouth go dry, “I...I have to get your shirt off.” Rey blinked her eyes open. Oh.

She managed to glance back some, seeing that her shirt was an absolute ruin. It had barely stayed on while they’d been running; the tank top was almost sliced all the way down, and her sports bra was hanging on almost literally by a thread. She sighed, nodding and facing the table again.

“There’s a knife in my boot.” She wiggled her right leg, “Cut it off.”

  


Ben found the knife. What he needed now was the ability to breathe while looking at the expanse of her freckled back.

The knife sliced easily through the soaked material of her shirt, and he had to take a deep breath before snipping it through the bra as well, cutting the thin straps off of both so she wouldn’t have to move her arms.

She was tan _everywhere_ ; seeing her tanned, freckled back made him wonder about if she sunbathed, or if she just wore backless shirts often, or--that didn’t make sense. He was warm in the face and trying to be quick about this and thinking about her lying out in the sun with nothing between her skin and the sunlight…

The fabric fell away from her and he was left with the sliced nightmare that was her left arm and shoulderblade.

Luckily, it was her bicep that had taken the deepest of the slices. The scratches that ran across her shoulderblade were bad, but the beginnings of them on her arm were the worst, and those, at least, he knew could be wrapped up for right now.

“O-okay.” He took a breath, steeling himself. She was in pain, he could see her face, and right now he wanted to help her. “Just stay still, okay Rey?”

It was just water; she needed antibacterial, but they had none. This would at least flush the wounds out, but they’d need to get her to a medical facility very quickly.

Ben poured the water slowly over her cuts, and without thinking rested a large, gentle hand on the back of her head when she jolted, lip curling at the pain. She was more surprised at his gesture, blinking and not moving her head, listening to him tell her it was almost over.

"You're okay," he reassured her, "Almost done, just another few seconds..." His voice was deep and soft, he sounded so _gentle_ , like he had with the Apatosaurus in the fields. Rey felt her heartbeat pick up and swallowed again, shutting her eyes and breathing slowly, silently grateful for his touch. By the time the water was gone, she felt reluctant for him to walk away from her again.

  


They ended up slicing her shirt up to wrap around her arm. Ben rinsed out the fabric as much as possible before making sure she was bandaged about as best as he could, but that left the problem of her having anything to wear.

“I...it’s probably huge but...hold on,” Ben was mumbling nearby, and when Rey heard rustling fabric she glanced over, watching him unbutton his blue button-down and then strip off the undershirt he’d had on underneath. Rey’s eyes widened a little at the sight of his bare torso--jesus christ, he really was--was-- _big_. She couldn’t believe it; in his blazer and button-down he’d looked lanky and almost gangly, but like this...She had to look away, wondering how the hell he’d managed to hide this so well.

 

He was holding out the undershirt to her when he cleared his throat and she looked up, his face turned away so she could sit up.

“Like...like I said, it’s probably huge, but it’s...it’s... _something_.” Rey blinked, taking the shirt and nodding, sitting up even with him standing there. She’d never been all that concerned with modesty; it wasn’t like it mattered much, she wasn’t….she wasn’t a model, she was covered in freckles and scars and tattoos by now, but Ben kept his eyes averted, raking a shaking hand through his damp hair. She could see his ears through it, apple-red as he tried to hide the rest of his face.

“Thank you,” she nodded, glancing down at the shirt in her hands before carefully getting it over her head. Her arm still hurt, lifting it too high was painful, but she managed. The shirt clung to the scratches on her back, but when it dried it would be all right.

He was right, though, it _was_ huge. The white crewneck that had been tight on him swallowed her, and she laughed at how small it made her look when she stood up.  
When Ben saw, though, his mouth tightened into a line and he stayed just as scarlet red.

“Are--are you...okay?” He asked lamely, and Rey nodded.

“I’m good.” She smiled at him, “Thank you, Ben.”  


 

They were sitting in the small walkway between the three chambers of the small building, just so the exit and the observation window were within sight. The storm was howling outside, there was no going back out there, not yet. At least they were inside.

“You saved my life,” Rey spoke up softly after a little while, glancing up at Ben. He looked at her before clearing his throat a bit.

“It...it’s okay.” But she smiled, reaching to take his hand, her smaller fingers curling around his much larger ones. He turned his head a little to look at her in surprise, but her gaze was sincere.

“Thank you.”

Slowly, hesitantly, his fingers curled around her hand.

“You’re welcome.”

There was a long moment in which the two of them just gazed at each other in silence until Ben leaned in and very softly pressed his lips to Rey’s.

  


No sooner had he done it, however, did he rear back and turn his head away in shock and embarrassment. Nevermind that she’d leaned in, nevermind that she looked startled and disappointed when he’d pulled back--

“I-I’m so sorry, oh my god--” He spluttered, swiping a hand over his face. “I don’t--I shouldn’t have done that--I _don’t do things like that_ \--”

“I’m glad you did.” His eyes were wide behind his cracked glasses as he turned to look at Rey again, who had shifted to her knees to look at him.

“You...you are?” He managed to get out, stunned. She nodded.

“Yeah.” She looked down a little before meeting his eyes again, shifting just slightly closer and leaning up on her right arm. “If you want...you could do it again.”

She was a bit pink in the face now herself, but she didn’t really mind. It had been a while since she’d been kissed--excluding the drunken kisses she’d gotten at parties over the last...what, year or more? But a real, proper kiss...she hadn’t had one of those in a long time. And in truth, she wanted very much to kiss Ben Solo right now.

He looked absolutely speechless when she said it, staring at her, his mouth slightly moving as if he were trying to say something but nothing was coming out. Finally, this time, Rey leaned forward slightly and Ben, deciding to just throw caution to the wind, ducked his head and met her before she was even halfway.

_He_ hadn’t been kissed in a good while either--he’d had...well, about as much fun as someone in his field of study could have in college when they actually cared about their grades. He’d been so focused on work, too, that he’d sacrificed dating time and having much of a personal life at all, but Rey…

Rey leaned into the kiss and Ben’s hand slid into her hair, the knots she’d had it tied in earlier loose and wet under his touch. She was warm, and she tasted like...like sunshine. It made him blush while their mouths were still met. He wondered if she’d had better kisses, knew she probably had, knew this was stupid and sudden and probably just adrenaline--but he felt her smile against his mouth and felt like maybe...maybe he could be wrong about some of that, at least.

Rey smiled into the kiss and tilted her head against his hand, and thought of the people he’d kissed before her--god, how had they let this go? He was so soft and gentle but felt so much bigger against her, and she knew that if he parted his lips properly he could drink her in.  
Rey, never one to shy away from anything like this, parted her lips to his and urged him on.

 

Honestly the last thing either one of them had expected to happen here was probably this. Making out in an abandoned building during a storm while a huge, mutant dinosaur prowled around outside, possibly still looking for them.

Ben supposed stranger things could have happened.

Rey supposed there were worse ways to end a day.

  


They fell asleep with their hands still clasped between them, Rey’s head resting on Ben’s shoulder. She was drifting off and hoping the rain would at least have slacked by morning, so they could try and get back to the park proper. Maybe they could find the hole in the fence where the Erebosaur had broken through and get out through there--she hoped, too, that everyone in Central Command was okay; though it was radio si--

Rey gasped softly as they sat in the darkness. She’d lost her walkie-talkie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> god this took forever SORRY GUYS...


End file.
